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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Not even one day into the Roar Before the 24 testing sessions last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, young NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch realized what he was dealing with in teaming with a pair of New Zealand champion drivers and a veteran sports car ace.
While Zilisch was turning his first laps, his teammates — NASCAR star Shane van Gisbergen, IndyCar standout Scott McLaughlin and American sports car ace Ben Keating — were having some fun with the 18-year old Zilisch‘s cell phone, left innocently inside the scoring stand while he was in the car on track.
The result was a series of funny, candid selfies published on Zilisch‘s own social media accounts.
It‘s easy to have fun, when you know you are fast. And they are.
“They definitely mess with me, but I enjoy it and we have fun with each other,” Zilisch said, breaking into a grin. “It‘s been so cool to get to know Shane and Scott and Ben — he‘s got a lot of expertise and experience and a good sense of humor, too.
“It‘s a great group of guys and we‘re already having a lot of fun together and hopefully that translates to on-track success.”
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That‘s certainly the plan. This Daytona dream team is made up of former Australian Supercars champions McLaughlin and 2025 NASCAR Cup Series rookie Shane van Gisbergen — who stunned the stock-car world winning in his first NASCAR start in 2023 at the Chicago Street Race. Joining them are the 53-year-old Keating and NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie-to-be Zilisch, who both have already won Rolex watches in this prestigious IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship series opener.
They will all share the GTD Pro class No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R — a car fielded in part by NASCAR Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks, himself a former Rolex 24 competitor.
As they have all discovered, fun is an essential part of the chemistry that makes this foursome a favorite to earn new Rolex watches by Sunday afternoon‘s checkered flag.
This will be the 35-year-old van Gisbergen‘s sixth entry in the Rolex 24 and he‘s been on the podium before with a runner-up finish in the GTD class in 2015. The last time he competed was in 2020, teaming with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch on the AIM Vasser Sullivan team.
“This is my favorite endurance race of all the ones I‘ve done. Spa, LeMans, Bathurst, this is the best by far,” said van Gisbergen, who will make his full-time driving debut in the Cup Series in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet this season.
“This is just enjoyable. It‘s so much fun. Like [endurance races] Spa [Belgium] and Le Mans [France] you‘re just flat-out the whole time and the safety car comes and everyone stays spread out. Whereas, here, you get your laps back and everyone‘s always battling.
“It really feels like a 24-hour race and you‘re always battling someone. I feel the atmosphere here is always good. All the other stuff [other endurance races] I‘ve done is far too serious. Here it‘s always just fun to be at. First race of the year and everyone‘s fresh.”
Interestingly, despite their shared background and crossed paths during the years, this will be the first time van Gisbergen and McLaughlin — a seven-time IndyCar Series winning driver for Roger Penske — have shared the same car in a race.
And they have fully embraced the driving partnerships with the young Zilisch and the veteran Keating. Zilisch signed a Trackhouse Racing contract last January to compete in the Rolex and will drive JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet as a rookie in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Zilisch brings an incredible resume with him, and in some ways shares a storybook stock car beginning with van Gisbergen. As the New Zealander did in the Chicago Cup Series race a year earlier, Zilisch won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start — claiming the trophy last summer at Watkins Glen International from pole position — then adding a pair of fourth-place finishes at Kansas and Phoenix in three more starts last year.
Zilisch won pole position in his first NASCAR national series start — a Craftsman Truck Series race last spring at the Circuit of The Americas, where he finished fourth. He then won pole position again in the series at one of the most famous stock car tracks in the world, the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway — all before he turned 18.
And that stock car success came after Zilisch won the LMP2 class of the Rolex 24 last January at Daytona and answered immediately with the LMP2 class win in the 12 Hours of Sebring six weeks later.
“I‘ve been with Connor pretty much every day the last couple weeks doing photo shoots,‘‘ van Gisbergen said, offering high praise for the young driver.
“He‘s an awesome young kid and the experience he‘s had already and what he‘s done is amazing. He‘s committing now to NASCAR away from this [sports car] world and it will be really fun to see how he goes. He‘s got a massive future ahead.
“He‘s just an awesome young kid and so fast, but a lot to learn still at that age,‘‘ van Gisbergen continued. “He‘s asking Scott and I and Ben a lot of questions, and we‘re having a lot of fun, bouncing ideas off each other about the car.‘‘
That support means so much more coming from someone Zilisch admires.
“It‘s really cool,‘‘ he allowed, flashing a smile. “The last 12 months for me have been really crazy and definitely changed the trajectory of my career path, so it‘s cool to team up with them here, guys who have so much experience not only in sports car racing but motorsports as a whole, whether it‘s V8 Supercars, IndyCars, and Ben, with everything he‘s done in sports cars.
“I have a lot to learn from these guys. Definitely going to try to soak it in as much as I can. Be a sponge. Just try to have fun.
“Obviously these big moments can be stressful, but at the end of the day, what we‘re doing and what Justin has put together, I just want to make sure I enjoy it as well.‘‘
Both McLaughlin and the sports car champ Keating say they have also enjoyed working as a team with the two NASCAR competitors.
“Really exciting for me,‘‘ said Keating, 53, noting that his children are all older than Zilisch. “I‘ve never been in the same car with any of those guys. I‘ve raced against them all and have a ton of respect. I really like them all. Same with Justin [Marks].”
His experience — including a 2015 Rolex 24 class win — has included a driver‘s seat view of watching his co-drivers compete in the past, however. And that‘s provided both perspective and praise. He recalled watching van Gisbergen driving in the pouring rain in the 2017 Rolex 24.
“I was driving around the track in amazement of Shane when he was driving the car because of all the classes and all the cars, he was the fastest car on track — he was faster than all the prototypes. SVG is special,‘‘ Keating said, emphasizing that van Gisbergen‘s and McLaughlin‘s trio of Australian Supercar championships automatically elevates their stature in his mind.
“And I have grown to have a lot of respect for Connor in the LMP2 class last year,‘‘ Keating continued. “He won this race at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in class and was a rock star in the car. … I‘m not surprised at all he wins in Trans Am, IMSA or NASCAR. The kid is just really, really talented.‘‘
That seems to be the prevailing theme for this foursome. They were among the top-five GTD Pro class cars in four of the six practices at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course during the three-day Roar Before the 24 test — and that included a best showing of second fastest in the Saturday morning session — with Zilisch posting that fastest lap.
“It‘s really cool having so much diversity between the four of us and I definitely see it in the way we talk about the car, we all have our own ways to explain things, but we‘ve all come to an agreement at the end of every session with how we feel and that‘s really positive in that sense,‘‘ Zilisch said.
“It‘s tough in endurance racing that everyone has the same sense of the car, but I feel like we‘re really aligned with how we feel. I‘m excited to hopefully continue to make the car better.”
It‘s a sentiment shared by this talented lineup that has already proven they are up for the task. And having a great time doing it.
“The biggest thing for me is we‘re racing for fun and when you‘re having fun you‘re going to do well, as well,‘‘ van Gisbergen said. “We‘re all happy with the car and the balance of the car, who knows what could happen.”
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