{"id":95605,"date":"2025-08-25T10:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95605\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:10:10","slug":"the-19-year-old-nascar-star-compared-to-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95605\/","title":{"rendered":"The 19-Year-Old NASCAR Star Compared to Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch secured a full-time Cup Series drive for the 2026 season with Trackhouse Racing.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old has seen a rapid rise up the NASCAR ladder, working his way through truck racing to a spectacular year in the Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n

He has seven wins in the Xfinity Series this season, an impressive number in his first full-time year at the lower-level racing series.<\/p>\n

His impressive campaign has led to a multi-year agreement with Trackhouse, replacing fan favorite Daniel Suarez in the Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\"Connor
\nConnor Zilisch, driver of the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet, prepares to climb into his car prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on August 22, 2025 in Daytona…
\nConnor Zilisch, driver of the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet, prepares to climb into his car prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on August 22, 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
\nMore
\nPhoto by James Gilbert\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Team owner Justin Marks praised Zilisch for his ascension and compared his rise to Formula 1 superstar Max Verstappen, who is the four-time reigning champion in the racing series.<\/p>\n

“All of those things together he’s demonstrated in a way that I’ve not ever seen a teenager be able to do before,” Marks said.<\/p>\n

“When you recognize that you’ve got that in a package, you have to run with it. We’ve seen it.<\/p>\n

“I mean, Max Verstappen, and there’s been other drivers that have gotten sort of thrown into the top level at a young age, and all of those guys kind of demonstrate the same thing.<\/p>\n

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think that he’d be successful, if we didn’t think that he’d be able to win as a rookie.<\/p>\n

“We’re just thrilled to be able to have him.”<\/p>\n

Verstappen had a similarly quick rise in Formula 1, entering the top flight of motorsport as a teenager \u2014 joining Toro Rosso at 17 years old.<\/p>\n

He impressed during his rookie season and eventually made his way to the senior Red Bull team. The teenager was at a top-flight team at such a young age and was thriving.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is not the only driver that Zilisch is getting compared to, as NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has thrown out legendary American racing names.<\/p>\n

“I mean, the only thing I think it’s close to is probably Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson,” Earnhardt said of Zilisch.<\/p>\n

“So he might be even more of a comet … he might be even more rare than that, because I don’t know, man, if you all get a chance to spend time around him, you’ll realize how mature he is, and I think there’s probably a lot of parents in the room that would be amazed at his level of maturity.”<\/p>\n

For more NASCAR news, head on over to Newsweek Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch secured a full-time Cup Series drive for the 2026 season with Trackhouse Racing. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,580,634,582,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-95605","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-formula-one","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-racing","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95605","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=95605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}