If you’re hunting for online automotive content, be it collector car insight, garage antics, or can’t-miss videos, Hagerty’s media site is a bookmarkable stop. Hagerty also produces motorsports content on its site, and when the stars align, those articles offer “the rest of the story” from something the SCCA® previously brought you – although in the case of Central Carolinas Region SCCA member Connor Zilisch, we knew it was only a matter of time before he started making headlines.
In September, the now-18-year-old Zilisch made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut – 200 miles later, he claimed his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win.
“There’s no question that NASCAR Xfinity team owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr., gave raw rookie driver Connor Zilisch a good car for Saturday’s Mission 200 at the Glen,” wrote Steven Cole Smith for Hagerty. “But there were plenty of good cars, and many more accomplished drivers, including William Byron, 2024 NASCAR Daytona 500 winner for Hendrick Motorsports; Shane van Gisbergen, who had won this season’s three previous road course racers, plus Cup drivers Ross Chastain and Ty Gibbs. And A.J. Allmendinger, a road course expert ever since he moved to NASCAR from Champ Car.
“After the Mission 200 at the tough Watkins Glen Raceway in New York, it was Allmendinger who told NASCAR.com about Zilisch: ‘As we’ve all seen, he’s going to be the next superstar.’”
Hagerty’s article catalogues Zilisch’s race, which included a mid-race penalty that saw him being moved to 31st place. That didn’t seem to matter to the young racer, though, as he pushed through for the win.
As the article notes, this is another feather in the cap for Zilisch, who began with karts at age 5, winning the Mini Rok World Championship in South Garda, Italy. From there, the article follows along as Zilisch moved to race cars in 2021, which included competing in the Mazda MX-5 Cup series and winning a Mazda scholarship in 2022. After that, there was a stop in the SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli.
Between all of that, however, Zilisch made a couple stops at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs®. We even interviewed the then-15-year-old up-and-comer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his rookie Runoffs year in 2021, where he was racing in Spec Miata:
What else did Hagerty have to say about Zilisch? A lot: “Suddenly, barely-18-year-old Connor Zilisch is the hottest young driver in NASCAR. Zilisch took a call from team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., during his winner’s press conference. ‘Enjoy this. You never win your ‘first’ again,” Earnhardt told him.’”
Read the entire Hagerty article by clicking here.
Photo courtesy Hagerty (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
