Shane van Gisbergen’s Watkins Glen weekend began with high hopes after qualifying on the front row for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series. But the Kiwi’s promising Saturday unravelled, with his Xfinity race ending in the barriers after a clash with teammate Connor Zilisch, moments before one of the biggest pile-ups in the series’ road course history.
Qualifying –
In Xfinity Series qualifying, van Gisbergen clocked the second-fastest time, lining up alongside JR Motorsports stablemate Zilisch, who stormed to pole by more than half a second, his fifth of the season, the most of any driver in 2024.
The Kiwi had already endured a strange moment in practice when contact with Christian Eckes and Sam Mayer left his car with minor bodywork damage, but it didn’t hinder his pace in time trials.
Later in the Cup Series session, van Gisbergen came agonisingly close to pole, topping the timesheets until a late flyer from Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney edged him out by just 0.033 seconds.
Blaney’s lap of 1:11.960 secured Penske’s 150th Cup pole, with van Gisbergen set to start second for Monday morning’s race (NZST).
Race –
When the 82-lap Xfinity race went green, Zilisch converted pole into the lead, holding off van Gisbergen into Turn 1. The pair quickly broke clear, with Mayer and Taylor Gray disputing third.
An early caution on Lap 5 slowed the field when Josh Bilicki’s Chevrolet was tipped into the gravel after contact with Ryan Sieg.
The restart on Lap 8 saw Zilisch fend off his teammate again, van Gisbergen briefly slipping to third before regaining second on the final corner of the next lap.
From there, Zilisch began to stretch his advantage. By Lap 14 he was 3.1 seconds clear of van Gisbergen, who himself had pulled 2.5 seconds over third-placed William Sawalich.
With seven laps left in the stage, van Gisbergen pitted early for adjustments, reporting struggles with grip and balance. Zilisch stayed out until two laps from the end before making his own stop.
Justin Allgaier, who had not pitted, took the Stage 1 win, with Zilisch cycling back to the lead once stops were completed under the stage caution.
The second stage began with Zilisch and Sawalich on the front row, van Gisbergen starting fourth. A sluggish launch from the Kiwi saw him lose ground to Sam Smith before recovering to fourth.
While minor incidents, including Thomas Annunziata brushing the wall and Blaine Perkins pitting with damage, played out further back, Zilisch was in command.
By Lap 30, his lead over Sawalich was 2.7 seconds, with van Gisbergen a further two seconds behind in third.
The Kiwi closed in on Mayer for third in the final laps of the stage, but Zilisch crossed the line six seconds clear to claim Stage 2, van Gisbergen finishing second with Mayer third.
The final stage restart saw van Gisbergen alongside Zilisch once more, but the pole-sitter kept the advantage through Turns 1 to 3, gradually easing his lead out beyond a second.
With 31 laps to go, van Gisbergen pitted under green, moments before Sheldon Creed slammed the barriers and brought out a caution.
The perfectly timed stop kept the Kiwi at the front when the field cycled through the pit lane, while Zilisch dropped to ninth after stopping under yellow.
On the restart, van Gisbergen wasted no time reclaiming the lead, but Zilisch’s charge back through the pack was relentless. By 23 laps to go, he had reeled in his teammate and was visibly the faster car.
Van Gisbergen, struggling for grip, defended hard, forcing Zilisch to switch between attack and defence as Austin Hill joined the fight.
With 18 laps remaining, Zilisch finally got alongside van Gisbergen at Turn 1 but ran wide. Rejoining at an awkward angle, his nose made contact with the Kiwi’s Chevrolet, sending van Gisbergen spearing into the wall in a heavy impact that destroyed his race.
Van Gisbergen was unharmed but left disappointed.
“Yeah, not ideal, pretty gutted really. Our car wasn’t great, but we still managed to get ourselves in a good position.”
Zilisch was left unsettled over the radio:
“I just don’t know where I could have done. He didn’t leave me any room to rejoin,” he says over team radio.
His JR Motorsport team tells him to shake it off. Zilisch replies, “Don’t lie to me if I wrecked him either. … If I wrecked him, tell me.”
The drama escalated again with 11 laps to go.
Zilisch had fought back to the lead ahead of Hill and McDowell, but at the end of the back straight, Hill got into the back of McDowell.
McDowell was sent head-on into the wall before ricocheting back into traffic, triggering a chain-reaction crash that blocked the circuit and left multiple cars wrecked.
Commentators described it as one of the largest crashes in Xfinity Series road course history.
Damage was reported to cars driven by Jesse Love, Preston Pardus, Daniel Dye, William Sawalich, Kaz Grala, Dean Thompson, Jeb Burton, Kyle Sieg, Ryan Sieg, Anthony Alfredo, Nick Sanchez, Tyler Gray, Ryan Ellis, and Josh Bilicki.
After an extended clean-up, the race restarted with four laps to go. Zilisch retook the lead from Sammy Smith and held on for his sixth win of the season, extending his streak to 11 consecutive top-five finishes and adding to JR Motorsports’ tally of 13 wins this year.
Mayer finished second ahead of Smith, with Hill and Carson Kvapil rounding out the top five.
Celebrations, however, were short-lived. While climbing onto his car in Victory Lane, Zilisch lost his footing, falling to the ground and landing heavily on his head and neck with his ankle getting tangled and twisted in the car’s window and window netting.
He was stretchered to the infield medical centre via ambulance but was reported to be talking with medics.
Further updates on his condition are awaited.
Header Image: JR Motorsports
