A young racing prodigy is swiftly climbing the ranks of NASCAR. Connor Zilisch just crossed the threshold into adulthood, and he is already making a lot of noise in the racing community. His Craftsman Truck debut at Circuit of the Americas was stellar—he won the pole and wheeled his car from the back of the field to a P4 finish. Now Zilisch is ready to embrace the Xfinity fold under Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s guidance.

However, Dale Jr. would have to mentor him diligently. Xfinity currently hosts another fiery driver who is already excelling in his rookie year. This Kiwi racer can be a ball of fire on road courses, as he demonstrated in his bang of a Cup Series debut last year. Naturally, Zilisch winced at competing with this talent.

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s young prodigy already seeing thorns?

Shane van Gisbergen was already a motorsports icon before his NASCAR stint. He is an 80-time race winner and a three-time champion in the Australian Supercars series. SVG shattered some records when he burst into the NASCAR Cup Series with a win at his debut Chicago Street Race. And he has continued to deliver since, holding three wins this year in Xfinity: Sonoma, Portland, and Chicago again. So Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s recruit clearly knows what kind of threat he would face.

Connor Zilisch was confirmed as the No. 88 driver for JR Motorsports recently, as fans were sad to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. go. Now the 18-year-old speedster is carving out a new phase of his career, as he told Corey LaJoie on the Stacking Pennies episode. “I want to be able to go out there and learn, right? The only way to get better and to learn is to be doing it – reps and seat time. Running full-time next year would allow me to do that and I would get a lot of reps…Hopefully, I’ll be able to go out there and…go win a road course, win two road courses, and hopefully be competitive on the ovals,” Zilisch said.

But SVG’s presence may be enough to jitter Zilisch’s progress, as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s mentee agrees. Zilisch slipped an innocent wish, saying, “Hopefully, SVG is not running full-time in Xfinity next year so I don’t have to worry about that…I don’t want to have to race against him, as much as I want to learn from him.” Hailing SVG’s stellar record, Corey LaJoie also chimed with Zilisch’s emotions. “That dude is a cheat code,” he said.

However, Connor Zilisch may be underestimating his own talents. The young star is truly a prodigy in the making. His mentors saw the spark in him before inducting him into NASCAR.

Zilisch’s resume speaks for itself

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When Justin Marks roped in Connor Zilisch for Trackhouse Racing development, he knew what he was doing. Zilisch owns two LMP2 victories at the Rolex 24 in Daytona, the Twelve Hours of Sebring. This year, he clinched three ARCA Menards wins and four trophies in the ARCA Menards Series East division. And then we saw how he did in COTA. So maybe that made Dale Earnhardt Jr. comment with pride, “Connor is such an impressive driver at this young age.”

Additionally, joining JR Motorsports for Xfinity, Connor Zilisch will be in an organization that has launched the careers of NASCAR stars like William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Tyler Reddick. Marks told Dale Jr. recently that Zilisch aligned with his “goal of having a Cup championship contender in our car in the future.” 

He further heaped praise: “When you’re trying to think of long-term vision and think what’s going to be successful years down the road is a lot of stuff around the speed. It’s maturity, authenticity, a great story, a great work ethic, drive, and all that. Connor demonstrated really quickly that a lot of those boxes were checked. At the end of the day, he’s a winner.”

Evidently, Connor Zilisch is carrying the weight of respect at such a young age already. We are very confident that he will prove to be a stellar driver in the Xfinity Series, in SVG’s presence or not.