Connor Zilisch sends positive message as Dale Jr.’s ‘fast cars’ locks in top qualifying spots at Las Vegas 

Connor Zilisch shared his reaction to the outstanding qualifying result of his No. 88 Chevrolet machine for The LiUna! race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 18-year-old NASCAR prodigy and his two other JR Motorsports teammates occupied the top three positions on the grid for the 1.5-mile track in Nevada.

In his rookie Xfinity season with Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned JRM, Zilisch has made a name for himself by securing a win at the Circuit of the Americas race earlier this month (March 1). With a strong resume of running SportsCar on road courses, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native surprised the NASCAR community with his win in his Xfinity debut race at the 2024 Watkins Glen race.

Ahead of the 2025 Xfinity season's fifth race at Las Vegas, Connor Zilisch shared a post on X and captioned it:

"Really fast car for this weekend at Vegas. Rolling off P3 tomorrow, let’s do it🤙🏼🎲"

Zlisch's teammate, Sammy Smith, secured the pole position with a speed of 183.45 mph and a lap time of 29.435 seconds. Meanwhile, another young JRM driver, Carson Kvapil, will join Smith in the front row for the 300-mile race. It is worth mentioning that reigning Xfinity champion and JRM's veteran driver, Justin Allgaier, is not far from his teammates on the grid, starting the intermediate track at P6.

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"We had a shot at top 5": Connor Zilisch opens up about his NASCAR Cup debut

Amid his full-time Xfinity season with JR Motorsports, Connor Zilisch made his Next-Gen debut in the Cup Series, competing for Trackhouse Racing in the No. 87 Chevrolet.

Following his Xfinity win at COTA, Zilisch ran the Cup Series race but failed to complete the debut due to uncontrollable circumstances when he crashed into his Cup teammate Daniel Suarez.

Reflecting on his historic moment in NASCAR's premier division, Connor Zilisch said, via Door Bumper Clear podcast:

"Yeah, it's so tough to hop in a car that you've never driven before. When you're racing against guys that have 500 Cup starts under their belt and they've been running this car for four years and I'm coming in, no testing at all, just kind of cold turkey into practice."

He continued:

"I wish we could have seen the race play out because I feel like we had a shot at a top five and a really good finish. So a little frustrated with that but getting to make my Cup debut, soak it all in enjoy, it was a really cool day."

As of now, no more Cup races have been scheduled for the young JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch, as he is focused on his rookie run. However, the No. 88 driver hopes to learn more by running the ovals in the Xfinity Series.