Connor Zilisch Freak Fall, la lesión no evitará que los conductores celebren la victoria

RICHMOND, Va. — Ross Chastain saw his Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch fall from his car in a victory celebration a week ago and potentially could miss a race (or more) with a broken collarbone.

But despite the danger that Chastain witnessed, he has no plans to change his victory celebration.

An eighth-generation watermelon farmer, Chastain is known to stand atop his car and smash a watermelon.

“We’re good,” Chastain said. “It’s recommended to do that. No hesitation here. If we’re smashing watermelons, we’re doing OK.

“It is a good reminder that there’s dangerous things in life everywhere we go.”

From serious concern to uncontrollable laughter, drivers had a variety of responses to Zilisch’s fall and injury — and to how they might approach their victory celebrations.

Zilisch, a 19-year-old driver who leads the Xfinity standings for JR Motorsports and who is set to move to Cup next season as the soon-to-be-announced replacement of Daniel Suarez at Trackhouse Racing, feels lucky he wasn’t more seriously injured in the Aug. 9 incident.

The fall occurred when he had one foot on the driver’s window sill and one foot on the roof. He had not tucked the window net (the driver’s side does not have a window installed but instead a mesh net used to keep debris out but can be quickly unhooked for the driver exit). When the team doused him with water after he got out of the car, his foot slipped on the net and he fell hard to the ground. He indicated he was briefly knocked unconscious.

Zilisch had surgery on Tuesday. The Xfinity Series had the Richmond weekend off and Zilisch’s status for this upcoming weekend’s race at Daytona is still to be determined. 

RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski said he won’t tell his drivers how to celebrate.

“I’m not looking to be the car police on what you can and can’t do,” Keselowski said. “It certainly was an interesting moment. That’s something I’ve never seen before.”

Keselowski, who once sliced his hand open when he accidentally broke a champagne bottle in victory lane, said he probably won’t stand on his car.

“I think I’ll just grab my American flag and stand outside of it,” Keselowski said. “But man, that was sure scary. The video … because now that we know Connor is OK, it’s one of the funniest damn videos I’ve ever seen in my life.

“We’ve all had our moments.”

While Keselowski sounds like he will watch the video for laughs, one driver who won’t watch it is Christopher Bell.

“I didn’t watch it,” Bell said. “Obviously, it broke the internet. I heard about it and all my friends are texting me, like, ‘Oh my gosh, did you see this?’ And they’re sending me the video of it.

“I can’t open it. I won’t watch it. That’s too grueling. I’m not going to watch.”

Bell said he doesn’t watch any accident — on the track or off the track — if someone gets injured. He said he will learn about what caused it and any preventative measures to take, but he doesn’t need to watch it.

And he also doesn’t need anyone to tell him that he shouldn’t climb atop the car.

“No one’s told me that, but I can promise you, I’ve done my last car stand for a while,” Bell said. “That’s for sure. That’s just so eye-opening and scary. And it’s bad. It’s really bad.”

NASCAR seems more than willing to leave it up to the drivers. It does not want drivers to jump up-and-down on top of the car after a race because of the potential that it would have on the integrity of the car before it goes through post-race technical inspection.

But if a driver wants to put a foot on the roof or climb up on top, that’s fine.

Drivers obviously like the freedom to have that choice. Chase Elliott, who once broke his leg snowboarding just prior to a race weekend, was all for drivers getting on top of their cars.

“Stuff happens,” Elliott said. “That’s life. The guy was enjoying a great day. He messed up.

“It was an accident. I don’t fault him for enjoying his moment. He rightfully earned that and whatever he wants to do, he should do it. … If something warranted a climb, yeah absolutely [I’d do it]. “

William ByronGanó Daytona 500, comparando la lesión de Zilisch cuando cayó sobre las escaleras.

“Odio ver a Connor a través de eso, así que es difícil de ver, pero creo que todos aprenderemos un poco de eso”, dijo Byron. “Y estoy seguro de que el próximo tipo puede preocuparse por dejar el auto.

“Pero lo hemos hecho durante muchos años. Es como caer por las escaleras. Lo haces todos los días, y luego sucede algo. No puedes vivir en burbujas. Así que es solo una parte de la vida, supongo”.

Ryan Preece Comenzó 212 carreras y buscó su primera victoria en la copa. Nada evitará que celebre la victoria original.

“Me subiré a la cima”, dijo Preece. “Y tengo la capacidad de incluso hacer un retroceso. Pero no creo que el backflip tenga lugar muy bien”.

El ganador del sábado por la noche en Richmond no dudó en pararse en su automóvil. Austin Dillon De pie en la ventana del conductor en la parte delantera de la frontera después de la carrera, así como en el carril de la victoria.

Dillon dijo que tenían un miembro de la tripulación en el automóvil “para garantizar esto [window net] Ahora en el automóvil, la red de ventanas no tropieza. “

Austin Cindric, uno de los conductores más altos del garaje, le dijo que sería un momento de “árbol grande y difícil”.

“Quizás no me detendrá emocionado cuando salga del auto de carreras”, dijo Cindric. “Si vas a subir, supongo que la moralidad de la historia allí puedes pararte en el techo”.

Y si algo sucede, sucede.

“Haces este deporte el tiempo suficiente, definitivamente tendrás un momento en que desearías poder volver”, dijo Keselowski. “Tenía muchos de ellos. Y Connor tuvo la primera persona”.

Bob Pockrass incluye NASCAR e IndodyCar para Fox Sports. Pasó décadas, incluidos deportes de carreras, incluidos más de 30 Daytona 500, con piezas en ESPN, Noticias de Sports, Magazine de Escena NASCAR y revista News (Daytona Beach). Síguelo en Twitter @Bobpock.

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