Connor Zilisch is competing full-time for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the first time this year after delivering a victory for the team in his series debut last season.
Now he is set to make his Cup Series debut for Trackhouse Racing, the team with which he signed last year as a development driver. He is set to compete in this coming Sunday afternoon's race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
Zilisch is set to join the team's three full-time drivers, Ross Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen, and Daniel Suarez, in this 95-lap EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix around the 20-turn, 2.3-mile (3.701-kilometer) Austin, Texas road course.
NASCAR car number returns after more than a decade
When the Justin Marks and Pitbull-owned team have added an entry in the past, they have done so as a part of their PROJECT91 initiative, which is designed to give internationally renowned race car drivers the opportunity to compete in the Cup Series.
They first entered the No. 91 Chevrolet, a number which hadn't appeared since 2012 at the time, in 2022. The car was most recently entered in the 2025 season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway for Helio Castroneves.
But despite driving a fourth car for the organization this weekend, Zilisch will not be behind the wheel of the No. 91 Chevrolet. Instead, the team are set to use the No. 87, which hasn't appeared in the Cup Series for more than a decade itself.
The most recent appearance of a No. 87 car in a Cup Series race came in July 2014 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, back when Timmy Hill drove the No. 87 Toyota for NEMCO Motorsports. There have been 379 races contested since then, and none of them have featured a No. 87 entry.
This 11-year gap is the longest the No. 87 has ever been out of the sport.
The number has appeared in 781 races in Cup Series history, dating all the way back to the first ever race of the inaugural season of professional stock car racing in the United States, the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season, at Charlotte Speedway.
The number has visited victory lane 27 times in Cup Series history, most recently in 1963 when Buck Baker won the NASCAR Grand National Series race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Baker, who drove the No. 87 car in 419 races, is responsible for 26 of the number's 27 wins, with Jim Paschal earning the other.
Tune in to Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 2 for the live broadcast of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from COTA. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!