Connor Zilisch suffered a broken collarbone in his fall at Watkins Glen.
NASCAR will not make any changes with driver celebrations after Connor Zilisch’s fall last weekend in victory lane at Watkins Glen.
Zilisch, the Xfinity Series points leader, suffered a broken collarbone when he fell from his car in victory lane. He was standing on the door when he slipped.
“I remember, I got up on the car and I put my leg on the window net on the door and as soon as they started spraying water, it just kind of started to slide and I lost my footing,” Zilisch told NBC Sports last weekend at Watkins Glen. “I remember my legs split the door, I had one outside the door, one in the door and that’s when I started to tumble.”
Zilisch had surgery Tuesday to insert a plate and screws. No timetable has been announced for his return. The Xfinity Series is off until Aug. 22 at Daytona International Speedway.
Shane van Gisbergen, a teammate to Zilisch, stood on the roof of his car on the track after winning last weekend’s Cup race at Watkins Glen but did not do so in victory lane.
“I always have bad dreams of slipping over and doing at that in front of everyone,” van Gisbergen said. “But I just got out like I normally did, but I definitely didn't get on the roof in victory lane.”
Denny Hamlin, on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast this week admitted that his victory lane celebrations could be impacted by Zilisch’s fall.
“I’m going to think about it from now on,” Hamlin said. “Maybe I should just, when I pop out, just sit my butt right on the top, just sit there.”
After winning at Las Vegas in March, Josh Berry stopped his car at the start/finish line and climbed on to the roof of his car. When he went to victory lane, Berry stood on the door of his car.
But that could change. Berry said he thinks every driver will look at how they celebrate a win after Zilisch’s fall.
“That was just so frightening to see,” Berry said Wednesday. “You take for granted how things can go. I think we’ll think about it more when you see something like that. I think you’re going to think about whether the … window net ends up on the door.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to, I mean we’ve been strapped in a car for three hours, four hours, you get out, it’s no different than being on a plane or something and standing up for the first time. You’re legs are a little shaky. Sometimes, I think, we take for granted some of that stuff. I think we’ll all look at it a little differently. Obviously, you don’t want to ruin the celebration element of it, but you’ve got to watch something like that and learn from it.
“That was a scary deal. I’m glad that he’s relatively OK. Obviously, he’s banged up a little bit, but I’m glad it was not worse than it was and hope to never see that again because it was hard to watch.”
After winning Talladega earlier this season, Austin Cindric climbed to the roof of his car on the track and slammed the roof three times.
“I think about what happened to Connor often,” said the 6-foot-3 Cindric, who is among the taller Cup drivers. “The saying goes, big tree, fall hard.’ That’s a long way for a big tall guy to fall from.”
But Cindric said his victory celebrations are not likely to change much.
“It’s probably not going to stop me from being overly excited when I get out of the race car,” Cindric said Wednesday. “If you’re going up on top, I guess the morale of the story is you might as well stand on the roof.”
Category: General Sports
