Connor Zilisch’s future is set for 2028 and beyond.
Hendrick Motorsports announced Monday, Aug. 17, that Zilisch will take over the No. 48 Chevrolet beginning in 2028, replacing Alex Bowman following the previously announced retirement from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition. Zilisch signed a multi-year agreement with Hendrick, giving one of NASCAR’s top young prospects a home with one of its most successful organizations.
For Zilisch, the move essentially validates everything he accomplished in the lead-up to his Cup Series career. His 2025 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season produced 10 victories, eight poles and the regular-season championship, while he also won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in his first attempts.
His first full-time Cup Series season, however, hasn’t been the same story. Through 24 races, Zilisch has recorded eight DNFs, and his best finish is a seventh at Sonoma Raceway, his only top-10 finish.
That doesn’t erase what Zilisch accomplished before reaching Cup, and it evidently hasn’t deterred Hendrick’s belief in his long-term potential. The organization isn’t betting on the driver Zilisch is today as much as the one he can become over the rest of his season and throughout 2027.
That isn’t an unreasonable bet. Zilisch is only 20 years old, and by the time he arrives at Hendrick, he’ll have nearly 70 Cup Series starts under his belt. He has already shown an ability to adapt across multiple disciplines of racing, and he’ll have another season and a half with Trackhouse Racing to continue learning what it takes to compete at NASCAR’s highest level.
By the time 2028 arrives, Zilisch should be a much different driver than the one Hendrick is signing today. The question is how much he can develop between now and then.
For Zilisch, that question is now largely settled. For Trackhouse, though, it isn’t.
Trackhouse didn’t just happen to have Zilisch under contract. The organization took a chance on him when he was 16 years old, developed him through its system and eventually gave him his first Cup Series opportunity. He was supposed to be part of what came next for the organization.
The team still has Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, and neither should be overlooked. Chastain is a former championship contender, while van Gisbergen has already established himself as one of the best road-course drivers in the Cup Series and continues to develop on ovals.
Despite this, neither presents quite the same long-term answer Zilisch appeared to.
Chastain’s 2026 season has been a significant step backward, while van Gisbergen is still working to become more consistent on ovals. More broadly, Trackhouse has struggled to find speed on most ovals this season, a significant departure from its peak in 2022 and 2023.
That doesn’t mean Trackhouse is in trouble, but it does make the search for its next cornerstone a little more complicated. A young driver can only do so much if the organization isn’t consistently giving him equipment capable of contending.
Despite all of this, Trackhouse has time to figure it out. Zilisch will remain with the organization through 2027, giving the team more than a year to evaluate its options and determine whether its next young prospect is already within the organization or if they need to be plucked from elsewhere.
There isn’t exactly another Zilisch sitting around waiting for a promotion, though. Replacing him doesn’t mean just finding another young and talented driver; Trackhouse has to find a driver it believes can one day become the face of the organization or at least serve as a stopgap.
This is where the ripple effect reaches back to HMS.
With Zilisch taking the No. 48 in 2028, joining Hendrick’s long-time stars of William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, Hendrick’s premier Cup lineup becomes considerably more difficult to break into.
That brings Corey Day into the conversation.
Day is currently developing within the Hendrick system in the O’Reilly Series, where he has already picked up his first two victories this season. He is one of the organization’s young prospects, and before Monday, the No. 48 could at least have been viewed as a potential landing spot if he progressed quickly enough.
That option is gone now.
That doesn’t mean Hendrick has lost interest in Day, or that it doesn’t have a plan for him. It just means the organization’s commitment to Zilisch changes the equation for the drivers coming behind him. Day could eventually find another opening within Hendrick. He could become attractive to other organizations. He could even spend several more years developing before a Cup opportunity presents itself, similar to what Corey Heim did before his call-up to 23XI Racing.
There’s no way to know which path Day takes yet. That uncertainty is part of what makes the Zilisch announcement so interesting. When asked about Trackhouse’s plans following Bowman’s retirement announcement, co-owner Justin Marks said, “2028 is a little far away to be spending a whole lot of bandwidth on, right now.”
Well, 2028 suddenly doesn’t seem that far away anymore.
Zilisch’s move to Hendrick didn’t just determine who will drive the No. 48. It changed the questions facing the organizations and drivers around him. Trackhouse has to figure out who comes next, while Hendrick has to determine how its growing pool of young talent fits around a Cup lineup that now has one fewer opening.
Zilisch knows where he’ll be. Everyone else is left figuring out where they fit.
Cameron Bebeau is a Communications & Media Studies student at Fayetteville State University, where he serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Voice, the university's student newspaper.
A two-time NC College Media Awards nominee, Cameron has spent his collegiate journalism career finding and covering stories within NASCAR and local motorsports. Cameron is based in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Trackhouse should pick up Josh Berry. He’s talented and mature.