Connor Zilisch will not be making his fourth NASCAR Cup Series start at Watkins Glen International on Sunday.
Instead, the 19-year-old motorsport wunderkind will be spending his weekend the way no driver wants to—flat on his back, nursing a broken collarbone thanks to one of the most spectacularly ridiculous accidents in the history of professional sport. And yes, that’s counting the time Randy Johnson hit a bird with a fastball.
On Saturday, Zilisch did what Zilisch does—win. He dominated the Xfinity Series race on the Glen’s 2.45-mile road course, starting on pole, leading a race-high 60 laps, and generally making the rest of the field look like they were driving in slow motion. It was his sixth Xfinity win of the season, and his second straight at Watkins Glen. Last year, he also won from the pole—except that was his debut. This year, it looked like just another day at the office.
Then came Victory Lane.
After parking the car, Zilisch climbed out, stood triumphantly on the driver’s door ledge like a man about to give a victory speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier… and slipped. Not just a minor wobble, but the sort of slip you only see in slapstick comedies. One foot snagged in the window netting, converting what should have been a harmless tumble into a terrifying headfirst drop to the pavement.
For a moment, Victory Lane went from champagne spray to pin-drop silence. Zilisch wasn’t moving. Medical crews were on him in seconds, strapping him to a backboard and rushing him to the infield care center. Moments later, he was on his way to a local hospital. The official word: he was awake, alert, and had full movement—just not in the “jumping up and down” sense.
A few hours later, Zilisch took to social media with an update: CT scans for his head were clear. “I just have a broken collarbone…” he wrote, as if it were merely a splinter or a bruised ego.
Trackhouse Racing, the team running his part-time Cup effort this year, didn’t wait long to make the call. They pulled the No. 87 entry he’d qualified 25th earlier that day. No replacement driver. No miracle comeback. Just a bizarre, almost cartoonish accident that took one of the brightest young stars in NASCAR off the grid.
In the long, colorful history of motorsport, we’ve seen plenty of odd injuries—drivers breaking bones falling out of golf carts (we’re looking at you Jimmie), wrenching knees climbing in and out of cockpits—but this one is destined for the “are you kidding me?” hall of fame. Connor Zilisch may be one of the fastest young drivers in America, but for now, he’s also living proof that the most dangerous part of a race isn’t always at 190 miles per hour. Sometimes, it’s the step from the car to the ground.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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