Even race car drivers can get giddy when they meet their racing heroes. NASCAR Xfinity star Connor Zilisch recalled the first few times he met four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen. And while their two racing series are vastly different, their essence is the same. And that almost immediately made them good friends.
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“I went to dinner with him about a year ago in Texas. I went down there to film a video with SVG [Shane van Gisbergen] and the other two Red Bull F1 drivers [Zilisch is also sponsored by Red Bull],” Zilisch told Kenny Wallace on this week’s edition of the Kenny Conversation podcast.
“Shane is actually pretty good friends with Max because, during COVID, when everyone was on iRacing and on simulators, messing around when they couldn’t race in real life, SVG and Max were teammates on iRacing. So they became close friends,” he continued.
“I was down there filming with SVG, and he invited me to dinner with him and Max, and I got to meet Max and talk to him and get to know him better,” added Zilisch.
For the 19-year-old, that was a dream come true, especially since he grew up more of an F1 fan than a NASCAR fan, even though he was born and raised in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
“[Verstappen is] definitely a lot different than the public kind of makes him out to be. He’s just another one of us. He’s a racer. He likes racing, just wants to go to the track and win races, and not have to worry about the entire life that he lives [in F1],” Zilisch said.
“It’s pretty cool that I got to meet him and talk to him. And then I saw him again in Austria a couple [of] months ago. I was just joking around with him. He’s a guy that I feel like would race anything if he was given the opportunity and had the time to do [so],” he added.
Could Verstappen one day race in America?
The 28-year-old Verstappen admits he’s intrigued by NASCAR and American sports car racing. Zilisch, who has dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season with 10 wins for JR Motorsports and will move up to the NASCAR Cup ranks next year with Trackhouse Racing, hopes the F1 great will compete in an American race car.
And if that happens, Zilisch may find himself racing side-by-side with his hero. “I definitely respect him and look up to him,” Zilisch said of Verstappen. “He’s obviously crazy talented. It’s been fun to watch his F1 career, and hopefully one day he’ll get over here and get the chance to race either some stock cars or sports cars or something.”
A wild fantasy would be to see Verstappen, Zilisch, and SVG battle it out in the Next Gen NASCAR on the fast and flowing turns of Watkins Glen sometime in the future… Oh, but we digress.
