NASCAR Won’t Ban Roof Celebrations After Connor Zilisch’s Watkins Glen Fall

NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch is on the mend after taking a terrifying tumble from the top of his car following his Xfinity Series win this past weekend at Watkins Glen.

It was a scary moment that left the impressive rookie with a broken collarbone moments after taking the checkered flag for his sixth win of the season.

That could have been a lot worse, and Zilisch has had a good sense of humor about the fall. It did, however, have a lot of people wondering if the days of a driver climbing out of the car and standing on the roof to celebrate with the team in Victory Lane are going to go the way of the dodo.

On Sunday, the day after Zilisch's spill, Cup Series winner Shane van Gisbergen (who would've been Zilisch's teammate had Trackhouse Racing not had to withdraw him from the race) got out of his car about as gingerly as you'll ever see someone who has just won a race do it.

Probably a smart call in light of what had happened in that same spot about 24 hours earlier, but would NASCAR go so far as to ban celebrations on top of the car over safety concerns?

This week, NASCAR's managing director of communications, Mike Forde, made an appearance on the Hauler Talk and said that no such ban is coming.

"We haven't said that we were going to tell drivers who have won not to step out onto their window, and stand there and take photos and all that," Forde said, per Motorsport. "Right now, there are no best practices. We aren't legislating it. We haven't said that drivers aren't allowed to do this or anything else. However, I think we did notice the window net ... we do have NASCAR employees in Victory Lane, and just make the window net is inside of the car."

This is great news. How many hundreds of times have drivers climbed on top of their cars after a win? It would be a shame to see one freak incident put an end to such an iconic celebration.

But, fortunately, it appears NASCAR is getting this one right.