It isn’t easy when a racing driver moves to a new team for next season. Especially when the announcement happens in the middle of the current season. That’s exactly what has happened to Connor Zilisch when Hendrick Motorsports came knocking. He is expected to join HMS in 2028, so he will remain at Trackhouse for 2027.

Connor Zilisch hopes to leave his team on a high note

Zilisch told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “I just want to go out on a high note. Want to make my team proud. I want to leave Trackhouse with a smile on my face and with everybody telling me, ‘Thank you for all you did’. I don’t want any sourness or people not liking the way I handled my time at Trackhouse. I just want make sure I leave Trackhouse better than I found it.”

“Make sure that there’s going to be a high calibre driver wanting to get in the #88 Chevrolet and race for Trackhouse. That’s really important to me, I owe that to Justin. So yeah, I’ll be working as hard as I ever worked to make sure that happens. Until the day that I am no longer a Trackhouse driver, I’m going to continue to work my butt off and make sure that me and my team are getting the most out of our car every single weekend.”

His maiden full-time season has not been the best. As a matter of fact, the 20-year-old has struggled in his rookie campaign. There have been flashes of talent, but the end product has been missing. Additionally, Connor Zilisch had some horrid luck in a fair number of races.

As the 2026 season has progressed though, Zilisch is slowly finding his feet. The biggest piece of evidence was a 7th place finish at Sonoma, a season-best. He later followed it up with 11th at Iowa. That was clearly enough for Hendrick Motorsports to sit up and take notice.

What circumstances led to Hendrick Motorsports interest?

NASCAR’s silly season actually went a little beserk in recent weeks, thanks to Hendrick Motorsports. It all started when Alex Bowman officially announced that he would retire after 2027. This was actually pretty surprising for the 33-year-old, but at the same time it wasn’t.

In the last four years, Bowman has missed a few races at a stretch, due to injury. The first time was in 2023 after he sustained a back injury in late April. It happened during a sprint race, and he missed the next three races. Then in 2026, he was sidelined for four races after suffering a bout of vertigo.

It is highly possible that that was a contributing factor, but there are others too. So 2027 will be his last dance with Hendrick Motorsports before he walks away. It didn’t take long for HMS to find his successor, in the form of Zilisch. Again, given his struggles this season, it was probably a surprising move.

There had to have been other options like Corey Day or even Rajah Caruth. However, the drawback with those two has to be their lack of Cup experience. Neither driver has ever raced in the Cup Series, and throwing them into the deep end is a major risk. As such, Rick Hendrick and company, decided to raid the Trackhouse Racing stable and got Zilisch’s signature.

It’s a significant bet on a driver still finding his footing at the top level, but it also gives Zilisch a clear runway. He can treat the rest of this season and all of 2027 as the learning curve it’s already been, then arrive at Hendrick in 2028 with a full season of Cup experience behind him and no more excuses left to lean on.