{"id":29772,"date":"2025-01-23T13:40:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T18:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=29772"},"modified":"2025-01-23T13:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T18:45:11","slug":"connor-zilisch-to-make-cup-series-debut-at-cota-red-bull-returns-as-a-sponsor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/23\/connor-zilisch-to-make-cup-series-debut-at-cota-red-bull-returns-as-a-sponsor\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Zilisch to make Cup Series Debut at COTA, Red Bull Returns as a Sponsor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Young phenom Connor Zilisch announced today that he will make his Cup Series debut in 2025. Zilisch will drive the #87 Chevy for Trackhouse with sponsorship from Red Bull. Red Bull will sponsor six races, one for Zilisch and five for Shane Van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Bull Returns to NASCAR with SVG and Zilisch&#8217;s debut race at COTA<\/h2>\n<p>Not seen in the sport since the Red Bull Racing Team left the sport in 2011, the energy drink will return in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In typical Red Bull fashion, the team pulled a stunt to announce their return. A pit stop executed by skydiving in a tire for Zilisch and Van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NEWS: Welcome to The House, <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/redbull?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RedBull<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Our official energy drink will serve as <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shanevg97?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@shanevg97<\/a>&#8216;s primary partner for 5\ufe0f\u20e3 races and for <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ConnorZilisch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ConnorZilisch<\/a>&#8216;s Cup Series debut at COTA.<\/p>\n<p>DETAILS: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6VZWK3Cwzi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/6VZWK3Cwzi<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YDmBU5vayI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/YDmBU5vayI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TeamTrackhouse\/status\/1882458539568123985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Sponsoring long-time Red Bull athlete Shane Van Gisbergen for five races. But in more exciting breaking news, they will partner with Connor Zilisch. Zilisch, who became a Red Bull athlete back in August, will now make his Cup Series debut at Circuit of the America&#8217;s in March.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised when they presented me my Red Bull helmet and hat last summer and doubly surprised when they told me I would make my Cup debut in the No. 87 with a Red Bull paint scheme,&#8221; Zilisch said in a press release from Trackhouse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRed Bull is going to bring a lot more eyes to NASCAR and I think everyone will win when that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Connor Zilisch is lighting the NASCAR world on fire. Eyes first turned upon him when he and his ERA Motorsports teammates won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the LMP2 class and followed that up with a win at the 12 hours of Sebring.<\/p>\n<p>He would make his first NASCAR start at Circuit of the America&#8217;s in the Truck Series. Zilisch would smash the Truck track record by seven-tenths of a second and finish fourth on debut. He would win on debut in the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen. Debut at Bristol, poles in both ARCA and Trucks.<\/p>\n<p>The news of his debut adds to the craziness of this young man&#8217;s talent. Zilisch is running the full Xfinity Series schedule for JR Motorsports in the #88 Chevrolet this year and already has plans to make a debut in the Cup Series.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/17\/connor-zilisch-is-nascars-next-phenom\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Connor Zilisch is NASCAR&amp;#8217;s Next Phenom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Red Bull Returns NASCAR and Van Gisbergen:<\/h3>\n<p>In his Supercars career, Shane Van Gisbergen drove a Red Bull Chevrolet. Now for five races, he will race a Red Bull Chevrolet. SVG will have Red Bull on the car at Las Vegas (Mar. 16), Sonoma (Jul. 13), Iowa (Aug. 3), Daytona (Aug. 23), and Kansas (Sept. 28).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An iconic look for an iconic brand. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/flIQputrj6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/flIQputrj6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TeamTrackhouse\/status\/1882481229897031967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have enjoyed a lot of new experiences and met a lot of new people since coming to NASCAR but it is nice to be joined by Red Bull who has been a big supporter of mine for many years back home&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d love nothing more than to give Red Bull a victory as a way to thank them for joining myself, Connor and Trackhouse Racing&#8221;. Van Gisbergen said in the press release from Trackhouse Racing.<\/p>\n<p>It is great to see iconic brands join NASCAR. We have seen increased presence from Red Bull&#8217;s competitors Monster Energy, who fields two cars with 23XI, and Celsius who had two cars in 2024. It gives those who may not have watched NASCAR before a driver to pull for because they enjoy those brands.<\/p>\n<p>Like Zilisch said in his quote, more eyes on the sport means everyone wins. This just adds to the excitement the 2025 season is building.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/12\/12\/zilisch-van-gisbergen-mclaughlin-and-keating-to-run-corvette-gt3-at-rolex-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Zilisch, Van Gisbergen, McLaughlin, and Keating to run Corvette GT3 at Rolex 24<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young phenom Connor Zilisch announced today that he will make his Cup Series debut in 2025. Zilisch will drive the #87 Chevy for Trackhouse with sponsorship from Red Bull. Red Bull will sponsor six races, one for Zilisch and five for Shane Van Gisbergen. Red Bull Returns to NASCAR with SVG and Zilisch&#8217;s debut race [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4347,"featured_media":29777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,1664,1665],"tags":[2333,78,837,1624],"class_list":["post-29772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","category-nascar-cup-series","category-nascar-xfinity-series","tag-connor-zilisch","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-shane-van-gisbergen","tag-trackhouse-racing"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29776,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29772\/revisions\/29776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}