Kevin Harvick addresses Connor Zilisch threat, offers warning

With his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the rearview, Connor Zilisch made an early statement and gave a warning, too. Kevin Harvick sees that the talented young driver has what it takes to disrupt more than a few drivers in the near future.

Connor Zilisch puts Trackhouse Racing into another tough spot this season. Last year they had Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez, Zane Smith, and Shane van Gisbergen under contract. They made the business decision to add a third charter, move on from Smith, and put SVG in Cup for 2025.

They will now go through this season and into 2026 with Chastain, Suárez, and SVG on the roster, and Zilisch under contract. Once again, something will have to give. Zilisch is not going to spend two years in the Xfinity Series, folks. At least, he shouldn’t.

Kevin Harvick talked about the threat Connor Zilisch poses to those Trackhouse drivers on his Happy Hour podcast. It could be a sign of things to come for more than just these Trackhouse guys, too.

“Well, you start looking around. Let’s just take Hocevar for example; when you look at Justin Haley and Michael McDowell. So, he’s ultra-fast, well he’s in the same cars. That immediately puts that pressure on those two teammates. And you look at the Trackhouse situation. It immediately puts pressure on Ross Chastain, Daniel Suárez, and SVG because of the speed he has on a road course.

“A new guy coming in like that, it makes everybody have to stand up and pay attention. Because somebody’s going to lose their seat when it’s all said and done. You look at a guy like Corey Heim, you look at a guy – there’s constantly pressure from somebody new coming in if you don’t elevate your game and you don’t pay attention to the ovals or the road courses. You better block your whole life out for it because if you don’t somebody else is going to but that’s what it takes at this level.”

Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim and Christian Eckes and Carson Kvapil and Jesse Love – I could go on, folks. Heck, add 16-year-old Brent Crews to that list. There is a new generation of not just talent but next-level talent coming up. Zilisch could just be the warning shot.

“Zilisch did a great job, I think everybody’s expectation is that he’s going to be great, he’s done great in everything that he’s done so far,” Harvick continued. “The Xfinity Series he’s going to learn a lot this year. The ovals will still be his biggest challenge but ultimately on Cup, on the Cup side of things, it’s really about how you manage life and how you manage all the things you have to do. To maintain the level of performance that you want takes a lot of work. And how do you do it every week?”

Kevin Harvick is correct. Connor Zilisch is coming for a Cup Series ride. He wants to be the youngest Cup Series champion ever. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Still, his talents speak for themselves and he’s only 18 years old.