Connor Zilisch balancing 'fun' with 'tough' job in NASCAR ahead of Cup Series debut at COTA

At 18 years old, Connor Zilisch is set to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut this weekend at COTA for Trackhouse Racing. Seen as the best prospect in his age group, Zilisch offers talent and wisdom beyond his years.

Ahead of his Cup Series debut at COTA, Connor Zilisch will answer a ton of questions from the media. He races for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. Trackhouse has him under contract and sees him as the future of the organization. He’s bringing Red Bull back to NASCAR.

Expectations have been high for Zilisch in the last year. Winning his Xfinity debut at Watkins Glen took those expectations to another level.

If you ask Connor Zilisch about it, like longtime media member Claire B Lang did, he’ll tell you honestly. NASCAR is fun, but it is very challenging. The teenager wants to enjoy the ride for as long as possible.

“Yeah if you want to have a long career in this sport you can’t hate what you do, right?” Zilisch said with a smile. “You’ve got to love your job no matter if you’re working at an office or racing NASCAR. So, you know, that’s one thing I want to keep and it’s really tough in this sport, right? These past two weeks have kind of shown me that. You run outside the top 20 two weeks in a row and you’re debating, why am I doing this? At the same time the good weekends make it feel that much sweeter.

“Yeah, it’s tough to have fun. I’ve talked to some of my friends who do race on Sundays and you know, you don’t win a lot when you race on Sundays, right? There’s a lot of good guys out there that are tough to beat.”

Does Connor Zilisch expect to win in his Cup Series debut? No. There are so many talented road course racers in the Cup Series right now, and he may establish himself as a top-five talent this weekend in that regard.

But things are different in Cup.

“The mindset is definitely going to change when you start racing Cup, and I definitely want to try and keep that fun aspect of it, but eventually it’s a performance sport,” Zilisch said candidly. “You know, where you finish and results come first. So, I want to enjoy it for as long as possible and I think it’s hard not to enjoy it because it’s such a cool job and such a cool sport to be a part of, but yeah, at the end of the day it is a job.”

Last season, Connor Zilisch made four Xfinity Series starts. He had a win, two P4s, and a P12 finish. This season on the two superspeedways, Zilisch walked away P27 and P34 with two wrecked race cars.

This weekend the Xfinity and Cup side are important for Zilisch. He could lock himself into the playoffs early with a win in his full-time series. Then he could really shock the world if he were able to do the unthinkable and win in his debut.