When all was said and done, Connor Zilisch had done the unimaginable once again.
In 2024, Zilisch became the first person to win the pole and the race in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen International. A year later, now a championship frontrunner, he repeated the feat and, in the process, set a new standard in NASCAR for the most embarrassing way to break your collarbone. He usurps Stacy Compton, who, in August 2000, sat out a race at Bristol Motor Speedway after breaking his collarbone while playing racquetball.
It’s probably a contender for the most embarrassing injury in recent memory. At least Brad Keselowski wasn’t on national TV for everyone to see him slice his hand open with a champagne bottle at Kentucky Speedway in 2014. It’s probably neck-and-neck with Layne Riggs throwing out his shoulder at the Milwaukee Mile last season.
Thankfully for Zilisch, we can all laugh about his now-infamous fall in victory lane at Watkins Glen knowing he avoided the worst of possible outcomes. That said, a broken collarbone isn’t nothing. When Ryan Truex broke his collarbone in April 2013, it delayed his NASCAR Cup Series debut until the summer. David Starr missed four Craftsman Truck Series races in 2003 after breaking his collarbone in a testing accident.
The only instance I could find of a driver running a NASCAR national series event immediately following a broken collarbone was in 2009. Robert Richardson didn’t miss a race after a crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because the Xfinity Series took two weeks off before going to Bristol and then another before racing at Texas Motor Speedway.
The decision of whether to put Zilisch back in the car, at a superspeedway like Daytona International Speedway of all places, isn’t a decision taken lightly. Especially considering the divided interests between JR Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing and the driver in the midst of a regular season championship battle.
“It’s a balance,” Trackhouse owner Justin Marks said Monday in an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s a balance between a 19-year-old kid who just wants to be in the racecar and can’t stand not being in the racecar and is capable of driving the racecar right now. And the other side of that is we need to make a smart decision. What we can’t do is rush him back into the car, especially a place like Daytona, get in a wreck and then be worse off than we were before.”
Zilisch underwent a procedure on Aug. 12 that put plates and screws into his collarbone to speed up the healing process, and as of Monday, Aug. 18, JR Motorsports said that Zilisch is on course to race at Daytona on Friday (Aug. 22) in the No. 88 Chevy. However, that’s being paired with language from Marks that stick-and-ball sports fans are accustomed to like “day-to-day” and “game-time decision.”
While we’re in the lane of stick and ball sports, the situation reminds me so much of Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers during the NBA Finals back in June. Haliburton hurts his calf, decided to tough it out in hopes of a championship and added to his stardom, only to tear his ACL in a game 7 loss and miss the entire 2025-26 season.
By racing at Daytona, even without an accident outright, Zilisch runs the risk of hindering his recovery and potentially losing a shot at a series title for the sake of bolstering his odds at a regular season title this year in the Xfinity Series. If he sits out at Daytona, he’s probably out of the picture for the regular season title but preserving himself for the playoffs and minimizing the risk of missing out on what next season has in store.
Bear in mind, superspeedways have been by far the biggest weakness of Zilisch in his early career. His two Xfinity starts at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway saw him wreck his way to 27th-place finishes, and his one Truck start at Talladega saw him finish 33rd. If the trend continues, it’s not like running will preserve that much of a lead over Justin Allgaier.
If he races and it works out, add racing with a busted shoulder to the early legend-of-racing’s young phenom. If not, it’s not the end of the world. There’s someone in the JR Motorsports organization who could make the perfect candidate to fill in for him. After all, he’s already been a super sub in a different way this season.
He’s pretty good at Daytona too.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.