NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch is recovering from a scary incident in Victory Lane at Watkins Glen on Saturday, but he does have a sense of humor about it.
Zilisch was celebrating after winning the Mission 200 At The Glen, a NASCAR Xfinity Series race, on Saturday. As he tried to jump out of the driver-side window, his foot got caught, and he fell hard to the ground with no ability to brace himself.
Zilisch was later diagnosed with a broken collarbone, but otherwise emerged unscathed. The clip went viral, forcing Zilisch to confront the reality that a lot of people would now know him only for his ugly fall.
“Now that I know I’ll be alright, it’s gonna be tough to make a comeback from this generational aura debt. Dang, at least I won,” Zilisch wrote on X.
Now that I know I’ll be alright, it’s gonna be tough to make a comeback from this generational aura debt. Dang, at least I won😂 https://t.co/pPndMH6Cor
— Connor Zilisch (@ConnorZilisch) August 12, 2025
Zilisch’s joke is that it is going to take a long time for him to live this one down. Unless he wins a lot of races, he is forever going to be remembered as the guy who smashed his collarbone celebrating a race win.
That is not terribly fair to Zilisch, who has won six times on the Xfinity Cup series at the age of 19. He also scored an 11th-place finish at Atlanta less than two months ago in the NASCAR Cup Series. He clearly has a bright future ahead of him, so he might eventually be able to live this down.
Zilisch had previously confirmed that aside from the collarbone, all of his tests came back normal and he hopes to get back to racing soon. Considering how bad the fall looked, that is quite the relief.
Thank you everybody for reaching out today. I’m out of the hospital and getting better already. Thankfully, CT scans for my head are clear, I just have a broken collarbone. Thankful for all the medics for quick attention and grateful it wasn’t any worse.❤️
— Connor Zilisch (@ConnorZilisch) August 10, 2025
