Connor Zilisch made his much anticipated NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday's race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), and while it ended early, the 18-year-old Trackhouse Racing development driver was impressive in every sense of the word.
After qualifying 14th, he was mired back in the pack as a result of the fact that he was caught up in an opening lap collision triggered by teammate Ross Chastain. He clawed his way back up to 14th before ironically being taken out by Daniel Suarez, another full-time Trackhouse Racing driver, when Suarez spun out and left the No. 87 Chevrolet with nowhere to go.
Zilisch does not have any current plans to return to the Cup Series later this year, though the assumption is that he will make additional starts, especially amid rumors that he could be replacing Suarez full-time in 2026.
Suarez is without a contract after 2025, and his ill-timed wreck on Sunday did everything but help his case to retain his seat.
Team owner Justin Marks spoke on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about Zilisch's future, and while he did not eliminate the very strong possibility of him returning in a fourth Cup entry later this year, he also made clear that Zilisch's priority is not currently the Cup Series.
📈 "His future is in the #NASCAR Cup Series, so any laps he can do in that car will be helpful for him."@JustinMarksTH discusses any potential future Cup Series starts this season for 18-year-old @ConnorZilisch with @TeamTrackhouse.
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 4, 2025
Full Interview 👉 https://t.co/WGRTG5gnEd pic.twitter.com/gU5W9NMJFm
And that's something his Xfinity Series team, JR Motorsports, will welcome hearing.
Zilisch, who won his series debut for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team back in September at Watkins Glen International, won Saturday's Xfinity Series race at COTA as well, effectively locking him into the playoffs just three races into his first full season.
Marks wants Zilisch to be able to put his full focus on winning an Xfinity Series championship, rather than distracting him with any additional Cup Series starts.
"We certainly want to give him as much opportunity as possible to get time in the Cup car. But it’s also a little bit of balance for a couple reasons. One, we want him to stay focused on trying to win the Xfinity Series championship, and this is a guy that’s raced so many different types of cars and different types of races the last couple of years and hasn’t really had an opportunity to be singularly focused on one championship run like he does this year. So, we want to kind of eliminate distractions. And make sure he’s in a position where he can focus on that."Justin Marks
While a 2026 Cup seat is not yet confirmed for Zilisch, it's obvious that Marks feels that his development is better attained by focusing on his full-time job, even if further Cup Series experience would play to his benefit in the long run.
He isn't totally ruling out further Cup Series starts for the Charlotte, North Carolina native, but he doesn't want those races to take anything away from his "day job" whatsoever.
Perhaps this approach can also be viewed as an extraordinary vote of confidence in the teenager, in that Marks doesn't necessarily need to assess him at the Cup level every other week to get a feel for what he could bring to the table in a potential full-time role, whether that happens in 2026 or beyond.