NASCAR star sheds light on Max Verstappen – Sports News
Being a Red Bull athlete comes with many perks, one of which is that it means that you can join with the likes of four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen.
This was the case for NASCAR Xfinity Series title favourite and soon-to-be Cup Series driver, Connor Zilisch. The extremely touted 19-year-old joined Red Bull’s expansive community of sporting expertise in 2024, main him to movie a “F1 Drivers vs NASCAR Challenge” video for the model previous to the U.S. Grand Prix in Texas in October.
There, he and future Trackhouse Racing teammate and fellow Red Bull athlete Shane van Gibsbergen guided the then-Visa Cash App RB F1 Team pair of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda by means of some grime observe racing challenges. But whereas in Austin, Zilisch just lately revealed he and van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars Championship winner, additionally bought to spend some time with Verstappen.
“I went to dinner with him about a year ago in Texas,” Zilisch instructed Kenny Wallace on his podcast. “I went down there to film a video with SVG and the other two Red Bull F1 drivers.
“At the time, it was Yuki and Liam, and I filmed a video with them, and 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, and 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.”
Zilisch stated Verstappen is “a lot different than the public kind of makes him out to be,” including that the down-to-earth Dutchman is “just another one of us. He’s a racer. He likes racing. He just wants to go to the track and win races and not have to worry about the life that he lives.”
Their paths crossed again in June at a Red Bull occasion in Austria, the place the 2 have been filmed briefly chatting by the Trackhouse social media crew. Leaning on his No. 87 Chevrolet, Zilisch requested Verstappen, “You want to get in?” to which he replied, “Yeah, I mean, I would like to do it.”
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Speaking with Wallace, Zilisch described Verstappen as “a guy that I feel like would race anything if he were given the opportunity and had the time to do so.
“I definitely respect him and look up to him, and he’s obviously crazy talented. So, 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.”
If Verstappen, who has just lately been dipping his toes within the GT3 world, successful his debut on the Nürburgring, ought to ever give NASCAR a shot, he’d turn out to be the most recent in a long line of F1 stars to do exactly that, with Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, and Daniil Kvyat among the many most up-to-date to have finished so.
In the meantime, he’ll be back in Austin for the 2025 U.S. Grand Prix on October 19 as he continues his late push to problem the dominant McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the championship. As for Zilisch, he’s set to take on Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday in an effort to secure his spot within the Xfinity Series Championship Four.
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