Lost in the shuffle of the Connor Zilisch and Shane Van Gisbergen incident that decided the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, one where Zilisch sent Trackhouse Racing teammate Van Gisbergen into the wall, was that they were both driving JR Motorsports cars.
Zilisch is on loan to JR Motorsports this season, a brief Xfinity Series development foray, before he is expected to replace Daniel Suarez at the Cup Series team next season while SVG runs a handful of races for the Dale Earnhardt Jr. owned operation.
As a result, this incident left Earnhardt torn.
😱😱😱😱😱😱@ConnorZilisch overdrives the turn and makes contact with leader @shanevg97, who takes severe damage after hitting the wall. pic.twitter.com/1ZulRxfMT0
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) August 9, 2025
“Connor coming back on the track and clipping him was avoidable,” Earnhardt said, breaking down the wreck on the Dale Jr. Download. “[SVG]’s shading left to make the entrance for Turn 7 and Connor’s options into Turn 7 (limited). He’s doing that and he had been doing this for many laps, to try to make it hard for Connor to get around. And he’s doing it again. And Connor didn’t cut him a break.
“Connor could have lifted. Connor could have got back behind. There’s 15 laps in the race to go. This is like a last lap, last corner move. And there were so many laps left in the race. And we would have been gifted more laps of these two guys trying to battle.”
Earnhardt also expressed conviction that the incident was more on Zilisch than Van Gisbergen -- especially given the number of remaining laps.
“I would say that that wreck was a result of them going lap, corner after corner after corner, and getting a little more and more aggressive with — I wouldn’t call what SVG was doing as blocking — he was just really trying to take away opportunity and line,” Earnhardt said. “He never threw like a Daytona, Talladega block, but he knows how to shade down the straightaway or be in a spot that makes really Connor’s options limited. He is very good. Very good.”
There were 15 laps remaining but Earnhardt also wonders if Zilisch was more aggressive with Van Gisbergen given a previous race between them at Chicago.
“We don’t know everything about Connor,” Earnhardt said. “We don’t know how Connor keeps score, right, in his head. This may just be who Connor Zilisch is. Right? This might not be a young guy, inexperienced, making mistakes. This may be Connor saying, ‘You block, you pay.’ That also might be the case, where we might actually be realizing how he’s willing to stand his ground in moments like this, even against a teammate.
“I don’t like it, right? I don’t like the 9 car getting destroyed. I want SVG to have a great experience driving our cars. I want SVG to want to do it again. Man, any car owner would love to have this guy behind the wheel of your car at the road courses.”