‘I thought he was dead’: That Connor Zilisch NASCAR fall, through the eyes of his Mom

Connor Zilisch will return to the scene of one of his best/worst NASCAR moments this weekend, with his mum reliving the horrific moment she thought he was dead.

The 19-year-old phenom had just claimed yet another terrific Xfinity Series victory at Watkins Glen last August, but within minutes disaster would strike.

As Zilisch tried to climb out of his car and onto the roof, he caught his foot on the window net and had nowhere to go but down. He crashed to the floor, clearly hurt, and would eventually be taken to the track’s medical center before being moved to a local hospital.

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Zilisch and that Victory Lane fall

While the pain of a broken collarbone and the resulting surgery cost Zilisch a little time in his pursuit of more NASCAR glory, he was thankful the end result had not been worse.

He explained: “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 and the last thing I remember was being halfway down and falling.”

Now, some eight months on and with the sport returning to ‘The Glen’ this weekend, Zilisch and his mum Janice Kerr Zilisch sat down with the folks at NASCAR to relive that horrible moment. It was particular traumatic for Janice, for very obvious reasons.

A Mom’s perspective

“My perspective was I was right at the back of the car when it happened, but I was not facing the car when he fell. All I heard was a thud, a crack. I turned back and oh my gosh, I did, I really thought he was dead.”

Connor himself weighed in with: “I can make light of it. My Dad was with her and she’s like ‘is he dead?’ and my Dad’s like ‘he’s fine, he’ll be alright’.”

Zilisch will again be racing on Saturday this year in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. And Janice has just one wish for her son this time at the iconic track in upstate New York.

“Let’s try to get to the Cup race this year.”

Amen, Janice

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