Connor Zilisch, Charlotte’s 18-year-old racer, set for Coca-Cola 600 debut
Connor Zilisch has raced on circuits from coast to coast and across the Atlantic, but the 18-year-old’s biggest moment yet will come right at home.
The Charlotte native is set to make his second career NASCAR Cup Series start in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, becoming the youngest driver to compete in the storied Memorial Day weekend race.
A career in racing is a dream that Zilisch has chased since unwrapping a go-kart on Christmas morning when he was just 4 years old. That dream has taken him from Weddington Elementary School to Europe — and now to the Cup Series spotlight in Charlotte.
“This is a race I remember watching as a kid,” Zilisch said. “And I never dreamed that I would race it at 18 years old. No matter what, where I finish, just getting to experience this is going to be really cool.”
A global racing path that began with a go-kart
Zilisch’s motorsports journey began on the wheels of that Christmas morning gift. He had no idea that go-kart would launch a global racing career — especially so early in life.
What began as a weekend hobby with his brothers became a competitive passion.
By age 11, Zilisch had won a national karting title and was headed to Italy to compete in the 2017 World Karting Championship. He had no expectations — and won the whole thing.
The next year, Zilisch moved to Europe full-time to chase racing dreams in a region where Formula 1 is the pinnacle and karting is ultra-competitive. Nearly every kid seemed to be chasing the same goal.
“Connor and I lived two minutes away, and we would see each other almost every day,” Brent Crews, the 17-year-old Truck Series driver from Hickory, said about the six months he spent alongside Zilisch in Europe. “We raced all over Italy and Germany together, and it was a big part of our lives. The race craft over there is just totally different.”
Zilisch has grown close with drivers like Jesse Love and Crews over the years. He’s embraced the lifestyle as a teenager making his mark in racing, and he cherishes time he spent overseas.
“It wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows,” Zilisch said. “I struggled over there for periods of time. And I’m glad I did it, because it made me such a better person and allowed me to learn so much at such a quick rate.
“Different cultures — there was so much value in it that I’m very glad I was able to live those few years over there and experience what it’s like living overseas.”
Charlotte roots and NASCAR’s biggest test
Even with his international success, Zilisch has always considered Charlotte home.
He grew up attending Panthers and Hornets games — the 18-year-old initially knew the NBA team as the Bobcats — and played competitive soccer before fully committing to racing. He attended Weddington Elementary, Antioch Elementary, and Weddington Middle School, but by seventh grade, the demands of his racing schedule became harder to balance. After missing 45 days of class one year, he made a pivotal decision: switch to an online school based in California to support his full-time racing ambitions.
Now part of Trackhouse Racing’s development pipeline, backed by Chevrolet and Red Bull, Zilisch is making waves in NASCAR, IMSA and other forms of motorsports. His Cup Series debut came earlier this season at Circuit of the Americas, but Sunday’s race will be a different challenge altogether — 600 miles, the longest race on the NASCAR calendar.
And it happens right in his backyard.
“(The Coca-Cola 600) is a true test to all the drivers,” Zilisch said. “Six hundred miles in a race car is a long time, and it’s not going to be easy for me. I’ve never run a NASCAR race longer than 300 miles, so this is twice as long as any race I’ve ever done.
“It’s wild to sometimes sit back, look from a third-person view and realize what I’m doing. It’s tough to manage everything that’s going on in my life at my age, but I’ve also learned to be able to enjoy it. I’m only going to get to do this stuff as a teenager once, and I’m just trying my best to make the most of it and have fun while I’m doing it all.”
