CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — As sleet pelted Bowman Gray Stadium during NASCAR’s preseason warm-up race, multiple drivers complained about poor visibility and the wet track conditions.
One of them — the youngest driver in the field — hit the button on his radio and grumbled it was time to get back to racing no matter the conditions.
“We're professional race car drivers — it's our job to go figure it out,” 19-year-old Connor Zilisch radioed to his team.
The teenager is the most hyped rookie to the elite Sprint Cup Series in decades. There was Kyle Busch in 2003, who had already been promoted by his Hall of Fame brother, Kurt, who famously said “if you think I'm good, wait until you see my brother.” Busch had been ready to go for two years, but a rule was passed that raised the minimum age to compete at the top level to 18, and he was forced to wait — which only built the anticipation.
Joey Logano followed in 2008 hyped by Hall of Famer Mark Martin's praise that the Connecticut youngster was “the best thing since sliced bread.” Like Busch, he also had to wait until he was 18 to debut.
And now comes Zilisch with expectations that some believe exceed Busch and Logano.
“I would have to say Jeff Gordon, honestly,” AJ Allmendinger said of the four-time NASCAR champion who was 20 in his first Cup Series season in 1992. “There was Joey and the whole ‘Sliced Bread’ thing, but I think straight-up hype? Connor is the deal and has already delivered. He's jumping in everything and performing at very high levels.”
Zilisch will make his Daytona 500 debut on Feb. 15 — four years after attending the race for the very first time. He was fairly new to racing at the time, had very few connections, and sat in the grandstands with tickets as a regular fan as Austin Cindric won as a rookie.
“I think it's very cool that people think that highly of me, when you are getting compared to Kyle Busch and Joey Logano there's nothing to complain about, they have five Cup championships between them,” Zilisch told The Associated Press. “If I can have a career half as good as either of them, I think that would be a successful career. But I've got a lot of time to get to their level, I mean, four years ago I was in the grandstands for the Daytona 500 and to think I'm now going to be in the race is just crazy.”
Not as crazy as it may seem considering the resume of the Charlotte native, who recently earned the internet nickname “Connor Connor Zilisch Zilisch” as a play on the moniker given to fellow Charlottean and New England Patriots quarterback Drake “Drake Maye” Maye. The idea is that the athletes are so elite, their given name needs no other moniker.
Zilisch started go-karting five or six years ago and flirted briefly with pursuing a career racing in Europe. That dedication has given him a maturity far behind his years that Justin Marks, owner of Trackhouse Racing, recognized immediately as he set a path to get Zilisch to the Cup Series.
In two years of racing sports cars and various NASCAR series, he's won at almost every level. In 2024 he was part of the class-winning team that scored back-to-back victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and then the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the next year returned to the Rolex as teammates with Australian V8 Super Cars champions Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen.
McLaughlin is now an IndyCar winner for Team Penske and van Gisbergen, who made NASCAR's playoffs as a rookie last year, will be Zilisch's teammate at Trackhouse this year.
“He’s just very mature, but there’s definitely times when you talk to him and you realize, ‘Oh yeah, you’re 18.’ Like, he’s young, but when he’s on track, he’s very smart and understands how to go about it in a respectful way,” McLaughlin said. "He’s got raw speed, he’s got no fear because he’s young, but at the same time, dudes like that are very temperamental.
“You hope a guy like that has the right environment, and it looks like a good environment for him with Trackhouse.”
Zilisch won a series-high 10 races last year in NASCAR's second-tier national series but was denied the title in the winner-take-all finale when Jesse Love beat him head-to-head. That format has been scrapped for 2026 but Zilisch said after mourning the title loss for a week or so, he's moved on and accepted Love has a trophy that he never will.
The focus is fully on 2026, which is in full swing already. He was part of the second-place finishing team in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the car owned by NASCAR chairman Jim France, and although he wound up 18th in The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, he raced up front at times and was one of the few drivers pushing to get the race going in wet conditions.
He'll race this season as teammates to van Gisbergen — and he and the New Zealander should be next to unbeatable on road courses — as well as Ross Chastain, who is eager to help the teen. Zilisch replaced Daniel Suarez in the Trackhouse lineup.
“I want Connor to succeed. If he succeeds, it’s good for me," Chastain said. "If I can’t win, a Trackhouse win is really good. Definitely want that for Connor, want that for me and want that for Shane. I’m the one clapping the loudest when they’re winning. I want to be right there competing with them and winning races.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Connor Zilisch smiles prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 25, 2025, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.
Democrats say they will not vote for a DHS spending bill when funding runs out unless there are changes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
The Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, released an expanded list of 10 detailed proposals on Wednesday night for restraining President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign of immigration enforcement. Among the demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use of force standards and a stop to racial profiling.
Thune, R-S.D., said most of the demands are “very unrealistic and unserious” and he called on Democrats to negotiate.
“This is not a blank check situation where Republicans just do agree to a list of Democrat demands,” he said. “The only way to get reforms to ICE is to agree to a bill.”
Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is “astounded to hear” Republicans say his party's proposals were political or unworkable.
“It’s about people’s basic rights, it’s about people’s safety,” Schumer said. If Republicans do not like the ideas, he said, “they need to explain why.”
As the two parties traded blame, a DHS shutdown appeared increasingly likely, starting Feb. 14. As of now, Thune said, “we aren’t anywhere close to having any sort of an agreement.”
In addition to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. If DHS shuts down, Thune said, “there’s a very good chance we could see more travel problems” similar to the 43-day government closure last year.
Schumer and Jeffries, D-N.Y., have made several demands, including no masks for officers, judicial warrants and better federal coordination with local authorities. The list they released Wednesday added several new items, including a stricter use of force policy, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.
Democrats say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, “improve warrant procedures and standards,” ensure the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it's verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen.
They also want an end to racial profiling, saying DHS officers should be prohibited from stopping, questioning or searching people "based on an individual’s presence at certain locations, their job, their spoken language and accent or their race and ethnicity.”
For officers conducting immigration enforcement, Democrats say that in addition to officers taking off their masks and showing identification, DHS should regulate and standardize uniforms and equipment to bring them in line with other law enforcement agencies.
Schumer called it a “gut check moment for Congress" as the immigration enforcement operations have rocked Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. But Republicans were dismissive.
Wyoming's John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican senator, said the demands are “radical and extreme” and a “far-left wish list.”
Sen. Katie Britt, who is helping lead negotiations, said it was “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands.”
“This is NOT negotiating in good faith, and it’s NOT what the American people want,” said Britt, R-Ala. “They continue to play politics to their radical base at the expense of the safety of Americans.”
Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump last week agreed to a Democratic request that it be separated from a larger spending measure and extended at current levels for two weeks while the two parties negotiate. But with nearly a week gone, a shutdown is becoming increasingly likely.
Thune has encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk. It is unclear whether they are or whether Democrats would be willing to back down on any of their demands.
Some Republicans have demands of their own, including adding legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on cities that they say do not do enough to crack down on illegal immigration.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it is up to Republicans to ensure the government does shut down because they are in charge.
“The American people want this abuse to stop,” Murphy said.
Other lawmakers are searching for options to prevent another partial shutdown.
One idea being floated is to essentially fund some of the other agencies within DHS -– the Coast Guard, airport operations under TSA and disaster assistance from FEMA.
“Why not take that off the table?” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is in need of FEMA funds from recent disasters.
“If it doesn’t look like they can get it done,” he said about the immigration enforcement overhaul, “I really think they should look at a la carte funding of agencies.”
That would mean essentially cutting ICE loose by allowing it to go without its routine federal funding because the agency already has such a robust budget from Trump’s tax and spending cut bill from last year.
ICE is expected to receive about $10 billion in the annual appropriations bill, a fraction of the $175 billion-plus for homeland security for the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
