“I Don’t Want to Do It”: NASCAR Prodigy Recalls Ditching a Professional Soccer Career to Pursue His Passion for Racing

Imagine an 18-year-old Connor Zilisch playing on the men’s soccer team at the Paris Olympics 2024! As wild as this may sound, there was a real possibility that NASCAR’s up-and-coming superstar could have been a professional soccer player. However, thanks to his coach’s recommendation, Zilisch was able to identify his passion for racing and strive to be the best at it.

Unlike most of the budding NASCAR prospects, Connor Zilisch didn’t come from a background of racing, nor were his parents super-rich. But the sacrifice made by his father to allow his son to pursue his dream, followed by his judgment call to ditch football, paved the way for his racing career.

Auto Racing over professional Soccer was an easy choice for Connor Zilisch

Zilisch started racing at just 4; Back then, it was just casual racing in the go-karts. His dad had to sell his Corvette to buy all three of his sons a go-kart, and Zilisch was the youngest of the lot. He didn’t envision himself becoming a race car driver, as he was all-in with his soccer program. Like racing, he was good with his talents, kicking the ball with his feet; he even made the state team at age 10.

But the big moment came when he asked his mentors and coaches to take a few games off because of his racing gig. And the verdict by his coaches pushed him away from soccer and got him focused on his racing career. “I was probably 10 or 11 years old when I made the state team for my soccer academy. We went to the coaches and told them, you know we’re going to miss a few games, maybe one or two, for this racing thing that we’re doing; it’s go-karting.”

“The coach said, well, we’re not going to be able to have you on the team. We’re going to have to demote you to the next team, one level down, and I was like, I’m done. I was like, If I’m not gonna be able to compete at the level I want to, I don’t want to do it. That’s when I had to make the choice of soccer or racing. I chose racing, thankfully,” Zilisch narrated while speaking on the Stacking Pennies podcast.

As it turns out, this wasn’t the only big decision the young driver had to make. Now go-karting leads to opportunities at the Formula 1 level. Connor Zilisch found himself at a crossroads and had to make a call on whether to continue open-wheel racing or pursue stock-car racing. Now, we all know he chose the latter, but how did it all come about?

Kevin Harvick helped kick-start Zilisch’s stock car racing journey

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Zilisch and his father weren’t certain of his career trajectory, but they chose to groom him away from his home in Europe. He entered the CIK-FIA Karting Academy as the USA’s entry to compete in the OKJ class championship in 2019 and 2020. During this run, he even defeated the likes of Charles Leclerc and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, both of whom would go on to become future F1 stars. But Zilisch didn’t see himself as an F1 driver and decided to return home after winning the championship in 2020.

In 2021, he teamed up with Keelan Harvick on a go-kart team. Little did he know that his talents were under the scope of veteran Kevin Harvick, who was present in support of his son, Keelan. Had Harvick not lent a helping hand in guiding Zilisch and his dad, we probably wouldn’t have been able to see him burst onto the stock car racing scene.

“I was able to create a relationship with Kevin; he saw something in me. The first thing Kevin said to my dad was, What’s your plan with Connor? And my dad’s like, Well, he’s going to race for another two years, and he’s going to stop racing and go to college and figure out his life. Kevin was like, Oh no, no, let me help you here. So Kevin took matters into his own hands and helped me get my first opportunity in the stock car,” Zilisch added further.

Well, thanks to Kevin Harvick for finding a diamond in the rough. Since then, Connor Zilisch has gone on to win the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Not to forget, he’s already won three ARCA races this season and is scheduled to make his Xfinity Series debut with JR Motorsports.