{"id":31075,"date":"2025-07-23T11:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31075\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:20:15","slug":"nascar-news-svgs-teammate-connor-zilisch-eyes-f1-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31075\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR news: SVG’s teammate Connor Zilisch eyes F1 chance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"VanConnor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen at Sonoma. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

Zilisch, 19, beat van Gisbergen in a thrilling Xfinity Series race at Sonoma as part of his full-time schedule in the second-tier series with JR Motorsports.<\/p>\n

The Charlotte, North Carolina, native is contracted to Trackhouse Racing and, already running a partial Cup program, is set to be elevated into a Cup Series seat alongside SVG next year.<\/p>\n

Despite growing up in the heart of NASCAR country, Zilisch started his career in karts and spent time in Europe with the aim of getting to Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always in the back of my mind,\u201d said Zilisch on the Stacking Pennies Podcast<\/a> of a possible F1 future.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up it was my dream, I wanted to race F1. I went to Europe when I was a kid racing go-karts, it\u2019s what I wanted to do. It\u2019s just when I was younger, I didn\u2019t really have the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow with an American team [Cadillac] being brought to F1, having connections with Red Bull and being kinda tied in there, I\u2019d say the chances aren\u2019t zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zilisch and SVG went head-to-head at Sonoma. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

Zilisch stressed such a switch would require a multi-year commitment and that he wants to establish himself in NASCAR first.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were to happen, I\u2019d have to go over there for at least a year, two years probably to even get enough Super Licence points to qualify,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d run F3\u2026 I\u2019d just run a bunch of \u2018BS\u2019 series to get Super Licence points. Middle East F3, random things that you can do to get the points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it would be such a big commitment. I\u2019d want to get settled in here first and know that if I go over there for two years I could come back and still have a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilisch started his karting career in the US but went back and forth to Europe for three years from 2018, winning the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy series in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zilisch and SVG were JR Motorsports teammates at Sonoma. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

He moved to cars in the US the following year, initially in Trans Am and Mazda MX-5s before embarking on a path to NASCAR through Late Model and ARCA divisions.<\/p>\n

Zilisch\u2019s time in Europe including racing against current Mercedes F1 rookie Kimi Antontelli and Red Bull F2 star Arvid Lindblad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I smoked them, but I was competitive, I could run with them. I think I could do it again and be competitive with those guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m competitive enough on the road courses I could figure those tracks out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a completely different world. Everything changes when you go to Europe, the language, everything, it\u2019s unreal. It\u2019s just different and it would take getting used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen couldn\u2019t beat Zilisch \u2018without wrecking him\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Whether or not he gets an F1 opportunity, Zilisch makes clear he wants to explore more than just the NASCAR world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the guy who cares to win 250 races in NASCAR like a Kyle Busch or care to go for a win record,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win a championship here and I want to be successful, but I want to experience different series and different cultures and what there is to explore in the world of motorsports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilisch\u2019s road racing experience includes two starts in the 24 Hours of Daytona, tackling the race this year aboard a Corvette shared with van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen at Sonoma. Image: Supplied Zilisch, 19, beat van Gisbergen in a thrilling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[3518,425,3335,26055,99],"class_list":["post-31075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-connor-zilisch","tag-nascar","tag-shane-van-gisbergen","tag-slot4","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}