{"id":93734,"date":"2025-08-24T14:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93734\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:49:07","slug":"trackhouse-announces-connor-zilisch-as-full-time-nascar-cup-driver-for-2026-two-anchor-sponsors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93734\/","title":{"rendered":"Trackhouse announces Connor Zilisch as full-time NASCAR Cup driver for 2026, two anchor sponsors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connor Zilisch is stepping up. He will run full-time for Trackhouse in the 2026 NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series, the organization announced Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse also announced Red Bull and WeatherTech will be the anchor sponsors for Zilisch next season. More details \u2013 including car number, team and crew chief \u2013 will be announced \u201cin the coming weeks,\u201d according to a press release.<\/p>\n

Zilisch has become one of the top prospects in NASCAR history after moving to compete professionally in 2021 and joining Trackhouse in 2024 as a developmental driver. He called the new \u201ca dream of mine for a long time\u201d as he announced a multi-year deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cCup racing has been the goal since joining with Chevrolet and Trackhouse, and while I didn\u2019t know it would come this soon, I feel like I\u2019m ready,\u201d\u00a0Zilisch said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cI know the challenge that awaits entering the Cup Series as a full-time driver, but I feel that with the support of Trackhouse and Chevrolet, this is the right situation for me. I won\u2019t be making any predictions for success next year. All I promise is to put in 100 percent effort, learn all that I can, plus have a little bit of fun along the way!\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilisch is competing for JR Motorsports this season and leads the Xfinity Series with six wins. Before turning professional, he raced 10 years as a competitive go kart driver. That includes time in Europe when he was 11 years old.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse owner Justin Marks also released a statement on the agreement, which makes Zilisch part of a three-car team. He cited the 19-year-old\u2019s rising stature in the NASCAR space as a reason for excitement to bring him aboard full-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnor is a rare talent that comes along every few decades,\u201d Marks said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cI have watched Connor grow from a kid racing go-karts at the Trackhouse Motorplex to an up-close seat as he beat all of us in the Trans Am races a few years ago. He quickly adapted to everything we have put him in, and what he is doing with JR Motorsports in Xfinity this season is historic.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnor is very mature, poised, and I know ready for Cup racing in 2026. He\u2019s been mentored along the way by former racer Josh Wise and Dr. Eric Warren at General Motors. I can speak for everyone at Trackhouse Racing when I say we have a tremendous amount of faith in this young man.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Zilisch is stepping up. He will run full-time for Trackhouse in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-93734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}