Last Saturday NASCAR fans in attendance at the Xfinity Series race proved why Connor Zilisch is regarded as one of the biggest prodigies in the sport. He made his series debut with JR Motorsports’ No:88 team and made it memorable by winning the race over the road course masters like AJ Allmendinger and Shane van Gisbergen.
Unlike many of his counterparts, Connor Zilisch was fully pledged open wheel racing talent who raced in the European karting series with the F1 dream before taking the NASCAR route. While talking about the same 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick has asserted that the youngster was really good in his karting days against the top talents around the world.
I know we talk about Larson and the things he can do in the car but this kid is actually a kid that went to Europe, went through that system. Beat a lot of their kids that are going through their carting system and through their open wheel ranks and just never had the opportunity to go and go through that F1 route.Kevin Harvick said via Happy Hour podcast.
The ex-SHR driver is happy and glad Zilisch decided to follow the NASCAR route. He went on to point out that the youngster was capable of taking any career direction he wanted because of his road course prowess, which makes him stand out in NASCAR as well.
I’m glad he’s in NASCAR but definitely one of those kids that could have went in any direction that he wanted to because of his ability and especially on a road course.Kevin Harvick added.
Kevin Harvick claims Connor Zilisch had a realistic chance at succeeding in F1
Earlier in the podcast the veteran talked about how he discovered the youngster in the karting scene when he was going there to support his son Keelan Harvick. They were a class apart from rest of the field. The fact that the youngster was competitive when he went to Europe makes him a good F1 prospect according to Kevin Harvick.
We found Connor in karts because Keelan was racing against him and they had just a few different karters and himself and Brent Crews that came out of there at a high level. Those two at a different level than most of the kids. Because Connor went to Europe and was successful in the karts, won races, and competed over there several times, he realistically is one of those kids who could have succeeded at F1.Kevin Harvick said.
The points made by Kevin Harvick proves Connor Zilisch is the driver NASCAR needs to invest on in terms of elevating him to a stardom. It will be interesting to see how soon the youngster can make it to the top tier and how he will perform against the big boys.