NASCAR Cup Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
November 6, 2026
Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the season finale race weekend of his NASCAR Cup Series rookie campaign at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Connor, just how do you assess what this rookie year has been and what you’ve learned from where you were in February to where you are now in November?
‘Yeah, I’d be lying if I said it was what I hoped for. It certainly hasn’t been a picture-perfect year by any means, but I’m just glad the last few months we’ve started to show some growth and I feel like I’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. It’s certainly taken time. There’s been some rough patches for me, for sure, and that’s been mentally and inside the racecar. It’s definitely taken a toll on me, but these last few months, I feel like we’ve been qualifying better, running better, and at least in the game; staying on the lead lap and just doing the basics. Hopefully we can continue that going into next year. But yeah, certainly not the year I hoped for or wanted, but I’m proud of myself for sticking through it and getting some results on the back end.”
What specifically, if anything, do you feel like has changed the last couple months? You’ve had more top-20s, a top-10 at Gateway, so what do you feel has changed the last couple months?
“I would say the biggest thing is starting our weekends off right on Saturday. We’re unloading better. We’re not swinging through the fences Saturday afternoon trying to figure out what we’re going to do to the racecar for Sunday to make it better. We’re qualifying better, which is a huge thing in the Cup Series. You qualify outside the top-25 at a lot of racetracks and your chances of staying on the lead lap in Stage 1 are slim to none. It’s so hard when the leaders get to the back of the field so quick and you’re kind of stuck back there. You’re in dirty air. You can’t do a ton. You see a lot of the fast cars that are able to do it and make a decent day out of it, but it’s just very difficult to dig yourself out of a hole if you don’t have a good day on Saturday.
We’ve done a better job of that. We’ve had some really good qualifying runs lately, at least in my perspective. We’ve been starting better on Sunday’s, which just completely changes your outlook on your day. You get a better pit stall. You have a track position to start the race. It’s kind of crazy how much it does, and I didn’t realize that coming into the year and probably didn’t put enough emphasis on it. I feel like I’ve done a better job of that.”
Ever since your announcement that you’re going to Hendrick Motorsports in 2028, it seems that people are trying to find a way for you to get there in 2027. Has that just been noise, or has there been any discussions or anything about you trying to get over to Hendrick Motorsports or a Hendrick Motorsports affiliate team?
“Yeah, it’s been a lot of noise. Alex (Bowman) has a commitment to run one more year. I have sponsors to fulfill obligations for another season. I’m excited about that. I think it’d be great to go race for Hendrick Motorsports next year and get that opportunity quicker, but at the same time, I’m happy in the spot I’m in. I get to learn in a lower-pressure situation with less eyeballs on me. I feel like I can just go out and focus on myself. I’m focused on results right now, but I feel like in that position, it would be a lot more stressful each weekend. I feel like it’s good for me to be able to learn in this situation and get to race with Trackhouse Racing for one more year and finish what we started. I would not want to leave Trackhouse after a season like this. I want to end on a good note. I want to be able to leave saying that we achieved all we could and gave it our best effort, which we have. Hopefully next year can go better; we can take something away from it and have a good last season together.”
Is there any one thing that you really learned this year? Something that really sticks out that you maybe weren’t anticipating or something that you felt like, okay, this is what I have to do.
“Yeah, I would say mostly mental. I think for me, I didn’t realize how hard it is. My entire life racing, I’ve raced for wins. I’ve been the guy to beat. I’ve showed up to the track and expected to win. This year, I haven’t had that. I think trying to find motivation when you’re not racing for the win every weekend is something that I’ve never experienced in my life. I’ve never dealt with that kind of adversity. I had to find a way to keep myself motivated and my team motivated through races where you’re not contending for wins every week. I’d say that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve learned is just trying to find goals that are achievable and just focus on those and block out the outside noise because it’s really easy to focus on the results sheet Sunday night and see where you finish. At the end of the day, that is important, but for me, my first year and being a rookie and just trying to learn, it’s not important. I just want to be a better racecar driver, and I think that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve had to learn is to not focus so much on where I’m finishing and just try and allow myself to learn without listening to the noise around me.”
Knowing that you’re going to be going into Hendrick Motorsports, does it give you some sort of comfort in that you can learn and you can learn these things… inaudible?
“It helps, but I still put pressure on myself every weekend to perform, and I expect a lot out of myself. Although I know that I have at least a couple more years of getting to do this, it’s still important to me to run well every weekend. I’m not taking it easy because I know that I have a couple of years of racing in the Cup Series ahead of me.
Yeah, I would say I still put as much pressure on myself, but it is nice knowing that I can have bad weeks and not have to worry about losing my job.”
What do you want to do and accomplish next season?
“Yeah, I just want to do better than I did this year, honestly. I put it as simple as that, and that doesn’t mean I want to finish 32nd in points instead of 33rd. I want to see a larger jump than that. I want to race for wins. I want to get to be on the lead lap each weekend and feel like I’m in the fight. I just want to feel more at home and be able to have confidence in myself to go out and do my job every week and succeed. I’m not setting any goals of amounts of top-10s or where in the points I want to finish. Certainly, I just want to have more confidence in myself to run up front and do better than I did this year.”
Last week on the pit road at Martinsville, Shane (van Gisbergen) mentioned that there were some big team changes coming to Trackhouse Racing next year. Without getting into details, what do you expect to see from Trackhouse from a performance standpoint next year?
“Yeah, it’s not my position to talk about it, but I wouldn’t expect anything major.”
On crew chief Randall Burnett:
“Yeah, I think the plan right now is to stick with Randall (Burnett). Randall’s been great for me. Obviously, the results haven’t been good, but he’s been very helpful for me. It takes time. When you put two new people together, it’s never easy right away. He doesn’t know what I like and what I want to feel out of the racecar every weekend. As we start to build that relationship, it’s only going to get better. I don’t want to have to restart that from square one. I think Randall’s done a good job of progressing as the year has gone on. We’ve made some changes internally in our team, outside of the crew chief position, just to try and help our team and make things better. We’ve seen gains. We just have to try and continue that.”
How has that personal relationship with Randall Burnett grown over this year?
“It has a lot. Randall and I are good friends away from the racetrack, which is super important. We get along well. I’ve gotten close with his kids and watch his son’s racing. He’s just been a great person for me to lean on. He stays pretty even through all the good days and bad days. We try and make fun of it, even when the weeks aren’t going great.”
First off, how many times did you have to pay for losers dinner this year?
“I paid for 12 of the 36. Not bad, but hopefully we can get that number down next year.”
So it’s going to continue?
“Yeah, I hope so. We all love it. After every single race, I always look at the scoring pylon and make sure that I at least beat one of them. It’s a battle within a battle.”
Secondly, talking about this year and going through the journey of a rookie season, is there anything that you can look at and say you’re grateful for having gone through this year?
“Yeah, there’s a lot I’m grateful for. First of all, the opportunity. I don’t think many drivers have raced in the Cup Series at 20 years old, so the fact that I was able to do this at this age and get a jump start on it is great. It hasn’t been great, but I’d rather learn it at a young age than wait until later. I’m grateful for Justin Marks and believing in me; Red Bull and everybody who was a part of it for giving me the opportunity. I’ve tried to take in every experience, whether it was walking out and seeing how many fans were in the stands. I still remember the Daytona 500 walking out with Jimmie Johnson. It was like my childhood dream. It was kind of crazy.
At the end of the day, I’m still living out my dream. I’m grateful for everything that I’ve been able to do, but it’s tough to remember that sometimes.”
The whole Rookie of the Year thing, it’s just kind of funny to me because I feel like every time you’re here or at a media scrum or whatever, it’s always just man, it’s a struggle, I hope I do better next year. But for all that, you’re going to have this title for the rest of your career, the rest of your life. What do you hope the prevailing emotions is when you either look at the trophy that was collecting dust or see your name as Rookie of the Year. What do you expect that emotion to be?
“Yeah, I just hope the stat sheets never show how many were racing for it in parentheses next to it because if that happens, then it’ll be a little embarrassing (laughs). But yeah, I guess I have to accept my award and take it. If I was a betting man, I would have put a lot of money on the fact that I would have won Rookie of the Year in February. But unfortunately, I can’t bet on our sport. If I could, then I probably wouldn’t have made much money because there would have been great odds.
But yeah, it’s kind of just comical after the year I’ve had to have to go to the banquet and collect an award. I feel like I shouldn’t be going, but here we are. I’ll take it.”
I think it was New Hampshire in August that we started having longer practice sessions. As a rookie driver, how does that help you guys as you’ve rolled through this final dozen or so races as you get these longer practice sessions?
“Yeah, I mean, it helps having two sets of tires and everybody goes out together. You can kind of gauge yourself off the fast guys. It’s a little bit easier to know where you are on Saturday afternoon when everybody’s in one group and you all go out there together. And also, getting two sets of tires, you’re able to make changes and put another set of tires on and see if it makes your car better or not. It certainly hasn’t hurt us as a team and just getting myself ready for qualifying. So yeah, I’ve enjoyed it.”
Can you just talk a little bit about your relationship with Jeff Gordon? I know he’s talked about not wanting to interfere with the rest of your time at Trackhouse, but what kind of role has he played with your transition?
Yeah, I mean, Jeff (Gordon) is somebody I look up to. I’ve known him for a little bit, but I really haven’t gotten to spend much time with him until the last few months. Getting to spend time with him and hear from him and his experiences is super valuable for me. Not only was he a great racecar driver, but he’s a very smart businessman, as well, and that’s something that I want to be myself. So yeah, I look forward to spending more time with him and as time goes, I’m sure I will, but I certainly look up to him and the person he is.”
You’re talking about some of the moments throughout your rookie season. Are there any that stand out to you that you’ll kind of look back on going forward or anything like that? “You know, I wouldn’t point to one situation in particular, but I kind of just look back on the entire season of the experiences I’ve gotten to live through. There’s nothing very glamorous that I’m going to point back to and remember, but just the hard times and trying to get through it all and figuring things out week by week is something that I’ll cherish and remember.”
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