Fresh off the success of a 10-race winning Xfinity campaign, Connor Zilisch was flying high at the start of this year when he was promoted to the Cup. He even stated that he wouldn’t mind leaving NASCAR to pursue his F1 ambitions if things went well. But as it turns out, things haven’t been going well for the 19-year-old. And his F1 ambitions? They seem to be on hold for now.

Connor Zilisch wants to deal with NASCAR first

Earlier this year, Connor Zilisch took part in the 24 Hours of Daytona, where he confessed that if he had a ‘very successful’ few years in NASCAR, he wouldn’t mind pursuing F1. A few months from that, Zilisch is having a difficult start to his rookie season. His best result so far has been a 14th-place finish, while in the other three races, he has finished outside the top 20.

Perhaps that is the reason why his ambitions beyond NASCAR have adapted given the current circumstances. During an appearance on the SPEED podcast, Zilisch was asked about what he wants to try outside of the Cup Series.

In his response, he mentioned wanting to settle and succeed in NASCAR. But omitted any mention of racing in F1. And instead of it, he expressed a desire to race in another iconic American motorsports event.

“For me, I want to race in, there’s a lot of things I want to race. Obviously, first I want to be successful here. I don’t want to jump around in other things before I do well in what I’m doing. Obviously the Indy 500 is a big bucket list for me. But I’ve got a lot on my plate as it is. So, I got to figure this stuff out first,” Zilisch said.

The 19-year old will be hoping to get his season back on track. After all, there was a lot of hype and expectations attached to his first full-time season in the Cup Series. Unfortunately, he’s gone through a series of bad races and not been able to show his true potential yet. Out of all four races so far, he’s only had one top 15 at COTA.

Zilisch arrived at the Cup level on the back of a legendary season in the Xfinity (now O’Reilly Auto Parts) Series, where he won 10 races, 7 of which almost came in a row, as after winning three in a row, he finished 4th in Iowa, which he then followed up by winning four in a row.

But way before he was a full-timer in NASCAR, Connor Zilisch shared his views on NASCAR and F1.

Zilisch saw a huge difference between NASCAR and F1

In a 2024 interview, the then 17-year-old spoke about how big a difference he felt as a fan going to watch an F1 race and how NASCAR compares to it.

“I went to a F1 race in 2020, and that made us (NASCAR) look like we were going to the county fair, almost,” Zilisch said as per Autoweek. “It was crazy how much money goes into every event in F1. I don’t think it’s really possible to do that for us just because … NASCAR isn’t F1.”

Zilisch mentioned that a lot of the fan experience is down to the hospitality. Having said that, he claimed that he isn’t sure of the logistics of how NASCAR would do it, or if it’d be possible in the first place. But for him, it became ‘an eye-opening experience.’

Do you think NASCAR can learn a thing or two from F1? Let us know in the comments below.