TransAm TA2 Class Producing NASCAR Stars of Tomorrow

• Look no further than today's TA2 paddock, and you will see the future stars.

• Brent Crews won the TA2 title in 2023 just before his 16th birthday to become the series’ youngest champion.

• Connor Zilisch is a 17-year-old racer on everybody’s list as the hottest young American shoe in cars with fenders.

When you walk through a current Trans Am paddock, you often see stars of the twinkling type—older drivers who are getting their kicks following successful full-blown professional careers.

Think Paul Menard, Boris Said or Chris Dyson.

If you venture into the TA2 paddock, you will see the future stars. Brent Crews won the TA2 title in 2023 just before his 16th birthday to become the series’ youngest champion. Connor Zilisch, the 17-year-old racer on everybody’s list as the hottest young American shoe in cars with fenders, won five TA2 races while contesting the title against Crews.

Richard Petty’s grandson, Thad Moffitt, came through TA2 last season in route to a full time Craftsman Truck Series ride in 2024.

“We’ve seen a bunch of high-level factory kids who come wanting to get road racing skills and learn race craft on road courses,” said Scott Lagasse Jr., who operates the highly successful TeamSLR in TA2.

The money behind the talented youngsters looking to land rides with TA2 teams comes from factories and agencies and in some cases families. Crews is part of the KHI management agency of Kevin Harvick and is in the Toyota Racing Development pipeline. Zilisch is a Chevy development driver.

John Claggett, president of Trans Am, said it’s just like the original days of the factories backing drivers such as Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney and Mark Donohue in “pony cars” during the 1960s. Only it now works in reverse – the factory money is currently creating the next generation of stars. “They are discovering these kids very, very young and are putting into place where they want these kids to develop,” said Claggett. “Brent Crews and Connor Zilisch are clearly proof of these development programs. Wherever the money comes from to put the car on the track, it’s the way it used to work (with factories funding drivers and teams in the 1960s). It’s just called the TA2 class.”

The immortally named Bob Stretch won the first TA2 title in 2011 at the tender age of 43. From the beginning, the TA2 was conceived by the Trans Am Race Company as an entry level version of a fire-breathing road racing series. They are catapulted by 530-horsepower engines in chassis supplied by three approved builders and outfitted with the silhouette bodies of Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger or Ford Mustang.