Chase Elliott Insists Connor Zilisch’s Awkward Victory Lane Injury Changes Nothing for Him

Jerry Bonkowski | 16/08/2025
NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott (9) during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

Chase Elliott has replayed Connor Zilisch’s fall in victory lane last Saturday at Watkins Glen several times. It’s not that Elliott was enjoying or making light of Zilisch’s mistake, but rather that, to this day, he still can’t understand how it all happened.

From a technical standpoint, Elliott knows that Zilisch made a misstep on the edge of his driver’s side window and got his foot tangled up with the window netting. Zilisch tried to stop his fall but couldn’t and was temporarily knocked out, and later diagnosed with a fractured collarbone.

But while he can empathize with the pain and injury Zilisch suffered, Elliott said what happened to Zilisch will not prompt him to change his own celebratory routines following any of his own upcoming Cup wins.

“No. I mean, it doesn’t for me,” Elliott said on the Five To Go podcast. “It’s not like he was doing anything crazy. It was just accidental. It was scary. I was watching over there a lot. It was a nasty spill, for sure.

“It’s one of those things where you can trip over your shoelace and you bust your knee up and walk into your house from a driveway,” Elliott said. “Stuff happens. It’s life. The guy was enjoying a great day. And then an accident happened.”

Elliott has stepped on his own car’s door window frame numerous times during his 20 career Cup wins. Fortunately for him, he’s never gotten his foot caught in the window net or had an accident like Zilisch suffered.

That’s why the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott is glad NASCAR chose not to change post-race celebratory rules. There had been discussion that the sanctioning body was going to disallow drivers from stepping on the door window frame areas, but NASCAR eventually let the status quo remain and did not change any rules.

“It was an accident and I don’t fault him for enjoying his moment,” Elliott said of Zilisch. “He rightfully earned that and whatever he wants to do, I think he should do it.”

Post Edited By: Karthik Raman
Chase Elliott Connor Zilisch

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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