Shane van Gisbergen emerged as NASCAR's new road-course beast, and now Connor Zilisch is favored to enter the scene dramatically this week at COTA.

Just as SVG won his Cup debut two seasons ago in Chicago ... Depending on where the odds go after Saturday's qualifying, you'd be quite negligent to ignore McDowell and Cindric at these numbers.

Take a moment and skip down to the odds posted below ... Can't say I was shocked to see SVG atop the Hard Rock Bets board. But ain't it a little early to suggest Connor Zilisch is ready to ...