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Globe and Mail
10-08-2025
- Automotive
- Globe and Mail
Connor Zilisch relieved to just be in an elbow sling a day after nasty fall
Sporting a smile with his left elbow in a black sling draped around his neck, Connor Zilisch was back Sunday at Watkins Glen International and recounting his scary fall in victory lane. After winning Saturday's Xfinity race at the road course, Zilisch took a nasty tumble while attempting a celebratory perch on his No. 88 Chevrolet in celebration. Zilisch, 19, was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken collarbone. Trackhouse Racing withdrew the No. 87 Chevy that he was scheduled to drive in the Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. 'First of all, I'm doing OK,' Zilisch said during the USA broadcast of the Cup race. 'Very grateful to be able to walk away from that, and I guess I didn't walk away, but I'm very grateful to be walking today and to just be all right. Thank you to all the medics who took care of me, and everybody who reached out and wished me well. I do appreciate it a lot.' After his series-high sixth victory, Zilisch realized he was in trouble immediately after the chaos began in victory lane, which typically is a frenzied scene of winning team members cheering and tossing beverages as their driver exits the car. 'Yeah, I was climbing out of the car and obviously the window net was on the door, and as soon as they started spraying water, my foot slipped,' he said. 'And the last thing I remember was being halfway down and falling, so I'm glad it wasn't any worse, and that the collarbone is the extent of the injuries, but hate I couldn't make it to the race today.' The question now turns to whether Zilisch will be ready in time to race in the next Xfinity race on Aug. 22 at Daytona International Speedway. 'We're still working out with all the doctors to figure out what's going to be the next steps,' Zilisch said. He already has shown to be a quick healer this season. After a one-race absence at Texas Motor Speedway because of a back injury from a crash at Talladega Superspeedway, Zilisch had posted 11 consecutive top-five finishes and five wins since his return. He noted that Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen 'had a place put in once and raced the weekend after. So I don't know if I'll be that quick, but hopefully my young bones will heal fast, and I'll be able to get back in it as soon as possible.'
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Connor Zilisch sports a smile and elbow sling at Watkins Glen a day after his nasty fall
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Sporting a smile with his left elbow in a black sling draped around his neck, Connor Zilisch was back Sunday at Watkins Glen International and recounting his scary fall in victory lane. After winning Saturday's Xfinity race at the road course, Zilisch took a nasty tumble while attempting a celebratory perch on his No. 88 Chevrolet in celebration. Zilisch, 19, was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken collarbone. Trackhouse Racing withdrew the No. 87 Chevy that he was scheduled to drive in the Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. 'First of all, I'm doing OK,' Zilisch said during the USA broadcast of the Cup race. 'Very grateful to be able to walk away from that, and I guess I didn't walk away, but I'm very grateful to be walking today and to just be all right. Thank you to all the medics who took care of me, and everybody who reached out and wished me well. I do appreciate it a lot.' After his series-high sixth victory, Zilisch realized he was in trouble immediately after the chaos began in victory lane, which typically is a frenzied scene of winning team members cheering and tossing beverages as their driver exits the car. 'Yeah, I was climbing out of the car and obviously the window net was on the door, and as soon as they started spraying water, my foot slipped,' he said. 'And the last thing I remember was being halfway down and falling, so I'm glad it wasn't any worse, and that the collarbone is the extent of the injuries, but hate I couldn't make it to the race today.' The question now turns to whether Zilisch will be ready in time to race in the next Xfinity race on Aug. 22 at Daytona International Speedway. 'We're still working out with all the doctors to figure out what's going to be the next steps,' Zilisch said. He already has shown to be a quick healer this season. After a one-race absence at Texas Motor Speedway because of a back injury from a crash at Talladega Superspeedway, Zilisch had posted 11 consecutive top-five finishes and five wins since his return. He noted that Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen 'had a place put in once and raced the weekend after. So I don't know if I'll be that quick, but hopefully my young bones will heal fast, and I'll be able to get back in it as soon as possible.' ___ AP auto racing:
Associated Press
10-08-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Connor Zilisch sports a smile and elbow sling at Watkins Glen a day after his nasty fall
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Sporting a smile with his left elbow in a black sling draped around his neck, Connor Zilisch was back Sunday at Watkins Glen International and recounting his scary fall in victory lane. After winning Saturday's Xfinity race at the road course, Zilisch took a nasty tumble while attempting a celebratory perch on his No. 88 Chevrolet in celebration. Zilisch, 19, was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken collarbone. Trackhouse Racing withdrew the No. 87 Chevy that he was scheduled to drive in the Cup race Sunday at Watkins Glen. 'First of all, I'm doing OK,' Zilisch said during the USA broadcast of the Cup race. 'Very grateful to be able to walk away from that, and I guess I didn't walk away, but I'm very grateful to be walking today and to just be all right. Thank you to all the medics who took care of me, and everybody who reached out and wished me well. I do appreciate it a lot.' After his series-high sixth victory, Zilisch realized he was in trouble immediately after the chaos began in victory lane, which typically is a frenzied scene of winning team members cheering and tossing beverages as their driver exits the car. 'Yeah, I was climbing out of the car and obviously the window net was on the door, and as soon as they started spraying water, my foot slipped,' he said. 'And the last thing I remember was being halfway down and falling, so I'm glad it wasn't any worse, and that the collarbone is the extent of the injuries, but hate I couldn't make it to the race today.' The question now turns to whether Zilisch will be ready in time to race in the next Xfinity race on Aug. 22 at Daytona International Speedway. 'We're still working out with all the doctors to figure out what's going to be the next steps,' Zilisch said. He already has shown to be a quick healer this season. After a one-race absence at Texas Motor Speedway because of a back injury from a crash at Talladega Superspeedway, Zilisch had posted 11 consecutive top-five finishes and five wins since his return. He noted that Trackhouse teammate Shane van Gisbergen 'had a place put in once and raced the weekend after. So I don't know if I'll be that quick, but hopefully my young bones will heal fast, and I'll be able to get back in it as soon as possible.' ___ AP auto racing:
New York Times
23-06-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
NASCAR Pocono takeaways: Chase Briscoe's big relief, Kyle Larson's struggles and more
Chase Briscoe is still adjusting to his new life as someone who should win races, not a driver who shocks everyone when he does. That's a strange place to be for a driver whose entire career has been one of those against-all-odds, Hollywood stories (if you're not familiar with it, it's quite eye-opening). Advertisement Things are much different for Briscoe now. Driving for one of NASCAR's powerhouse teams in Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe is expected to win, and it would have been a huge disappointment if he didn't. In fact, his entire career might be built on a false premise if he was unable to find victory lane in his situation. That's why he quickly expressed relief on Sunday night at Pocono Raceway, after he somehow conserved enough fuel to hold off the track's all-time wins leader in teammate Denny Hamlin. 'I've only won three races in the Cup Series. This is by far the least enjoyable because it's expected now,' he said. 'You have to go win.' There's no sugarcoating that. At JGR, it's win or find someplace else to work. And if you've shown you can't win in the best equipment? Good luck getting someone else to take a chance on you. That's the stark reality Briscoe signed up for: Fast cars, but major expectations. And he could feel the pressure creeping in as he sat winless near the halfway point of the season. 'The last couple weeks especially, (it's) like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I've ever experienced before,' he said. 'My wife (said), 'What is going on with you?' I'm like, 'I have to win. I don't think you realize how bad it is if we don't win a race and lock into the playoffs.'' When you drive for @JoeGibbsRacing, excellence isn't just expected – it's demanded.@chasebriscoe talks about securing his first victory with his new team. — NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 23, 2025 Briscoe said when he was signing his contract with JGR, he was shown a statistic: Out of 40 possible playoff berths to that point in the elimination playoff era, the team had made it 38 times. The expectation, he said, was clear: 'If you don't make the playoffs, you're not going to be in this car anymore.' Advertisement There are times when we wonder why NASCAR drivers don't seem to be having fun. Hey, that was some cool racing for sixth place out there! Why don't they get out of the car and smile? It's because for those at the top of the sport — anyone who drives for JGR, Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske — winning is about the only thing worth smiling about. Briscoe, the career underdog who made it big, now knows that all too well. 'There were a lot of people they could have put in this car,' he said. 'It was the most sought-after seat in the offseason. For me to be the one blessed enough, lucky enough to get it is great. 'With that, you have to prove yourself. To be able to come here and win, it doesn't mean I'm guaranteed to be in it for awhile — but it certainly is nice to know I can do it at this level, in this equipment. Hopefully, I can be here my entire career because the sky definitely feels like it's the limit here.' You can understand why Brad Keselowski wanted to stay out for one more lap. With nothing but clean track in front of him and suddenly freed from the scourge of Pocono's dirty air problem, Keselowski was ripping around the 2.5-mile track and making up ground on those drivers who were in the middle of a pit cycle. Or so he thought. But his team, with all their data and lap times on the pit box, radioed to tell him that wasn't the case. He was actually losing time to the cars who had come off pit road with fresher tires and needed to pit now instead of running longer. Keselowski had committed to running long in his mind and asked if he could do one more lap. The team said yes. So he did. Except right then is when Shane van Gisbergen spun out and caused a caution, which ruined Keselowski's pit strategy altogether. Instead of starting that final run somewhere in the top five and having a chance to win the race, Keselowski had to restart 24th and spent the rest of the race driving back up to ninth. At this point, for a driver in 30th place in the standings, wins are the only thing that matters. You can't blame Keselowski for trying to do what he thought was right; he's a veteran with nearly 600 Cup starts, a highly intelligent team owner who has a firm grasp on strategy, and a person who has spent a lifetime in racing. If there's no caution, his decision doesn't look bad. Advertisement Still, the driver has limited resources inside the car. Whatever he's seeing for lap times and however information is being relayed in his ear, it's no match for the computers on the pit box and the engineers in the war rooms back at the race shops who are helping call the race in real time. The best drivers and teams in the Next Gen Era are the ones who let the driver drive and the crew chief be the crew chief. Cliff Daniels doesn't ask Kyle Larson what to do; he tells him, and Larson says 'OK' and does it. Denny Hamlin doesn't question Chris Gayle (or Chris Gabehart before that); Hamlin puts the strategy in the team's hands. We've yet to see a case lately where a driver overruling the team has worked out. But we have seen multiple high-profile cases where the driver got it wrong (Justin Allgaier at Charlotte, for example). Keselowski, unfortunately with bad timing as a factor, now becomes the latest example. Wait a second. Is Larson suddenly not as fast anymore? Larson is tops in laps led this season and was setting a blazing pace in that category, making it seem inevitable he could reach 2,000 laps led in a season again (like he did in 2021). Except suddenly, Larson and the No. 5 team have just been … OK? In the last four races — Nashville, Michigan, Mexico City, Pocono — Larson has led zero laps. Not one! It had been almost a year since Larson went even three straight races without leading a lap. Surely, people will point to the disastrous Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 weekend as some sort of turning point. But this is about the speed of the cars, not the driver; remember, Larson shot to the lead at Charlotte and led 34 laps before crashing. Something isn't quite firing on all cylinders with the No. 5 team right now, and Larson has made several puzzled comments about it recently (like at Michigan, when he said he wouldn't have finished any further regardless of the fuel mileage game). 'I just hope we don't carry what we had the last few weeks into the rest of the season,' Larson said after Pocono. 'Prior to the last few weeks, we've been really fast. It's just been a rough stretch, but we'll continue to go to work.' Legacy Motor Club seems to have come to life in the last two months after a disappointing couple seasons. The question is: Can the team keep building on the momentum, or is this a temporary spike? John Hunter Nemechek has back-to-back sixth-place finishes at two wildly different track types (Mexico City and Pocono) and has risen from 25th to 21st in points in the last two weeks. He has a career-high six top-10s this season, all in spaced-out, consecutive pairings — but after each one has hit a slump. Advertisement Teammate Erik Jones is 18th in the standings with only two top-10s all year, but that's because Jones has been more consistent and has avoided bad finishes. Pocono was his fifth straight finish of 17th or better and Jones has rocketed 11 spots in the standings during that stretch alone (he was 29th after last month's Kansas race). Jones is well-established, and his talent is well-known in the garage. Sitting 18th in the point standings with nine races remaining until the playoffs isn't a major shock based on his past, but it is surprising given how Legacy ran the past two seasons (when Jones finished 27th and 28th in the standings, respectively). Nemechek is more of an eyebrow-raiser. He had a solid start to the season (he was inside the playoff standings for the first five races) and then faded, but has now been able to re-establish his footing. The 28-year-old is tied with Michael McDowell in the standings and the two of them are just one point behind the much-discussed Carson Hocevar and eight points behind future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch. There's a tangled jumble of eight drivers within 25 points of one another in the standings — from 17th place to 24th place — so it's a trap to get too caught up with points position now. But just to be in the mix at this point, considering the expectations for Legacy after the last two years, is worth noting. (Top photo of Chase Briscoe celebrating Sunday's win: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)
Washington Post
22-06-2025
- Automotive
- Washington Post
Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins NASCAR national series debut as crew chief at Pocono
LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. might already be NASCAR's most popular crew chief. He's certainly an undefeated one. Pressed into unexpected service, Earnhardt called the shots for 18-year-old prospect Connor Zilisch in the No. 88 Chevrolet and they landed in victory lane Saturday in the second-tier Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway. 'It felt good to have some input and decision-making power,' Earnhardt said. 'And then helping Connor understand what our plan was so he knew when to push and what he was expected to do.' Earnhardt — who won NASCAR's most-popular driver award 15 times — made a pit stop from his day job as team owner at JR Motorsports with normal crew chief Mardy Lindley suspended one race because of a lug nut infraction this month at Nashville. Aside from his duties as team owner, Earnhardt also was at Pocono for his role on the Prime broadcast for the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday. 'Lot of fun for me today,' Earnhardt said. 'I missed the thrill of competition. I love broadcast, don't get me wrong. But nothing compares to driving or just being part of the team. Being an owner doesn't really deliver like this. This is a lot of fun.' Earnhardt had his wife and two young daughters in tow with him as he made the celebratory walk to victory lane. Oldest daughter Isla Rose clutched the checkered flag while youngest Nicole Lorraine soaked in the scene from her dad's arms. 'I love that they just get to experience things about NASCAR,' Earnhardt said. 'I had such a great time growing up as a kid in this sport, just running around here. I want them to have that opportunity and understand that this is a place where they could create opportunities for themselves down the road.' The win continued a banner season for the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver — who swept two races at Pocono as a driver in 2014 — after JR Motorsports and reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier qualified for the season-opening Daytona 500 and secured their Cup Series debut . Earnhardt won two Daytona 500s, in 2004 and 2014, and 26 races overall. His side hustle Saturday was made a bit easier with Zilisch behind the wheel. Zilisch, who turns 19 in July, raced to his second Xfinity victory of the season and third of his young career. He won his Xfinity debut last year at Watkins Glen International. Earnhardt even pitched in during the race and tossed tires over the wall during pit stops. 'Midway through the race man, I was feeling it,' Earnhardt said. Zilisch took the win down to the wire and finally passed Jesse Love with five laps left in the race. Love finished second. 'Dale Junior, not too bad on the box,' Zilisch said. 'Pretty cool to have him up there. Getting him a 1-for-1 win as crew chief is pretty awesome.' Even with the victory, it just might be one-and-done on the pit box for Earnhardt. 'I don't know that I see myself doing it again,' he said. ___ AP auto racing:
