Shane van Gisbergen wrecks out of the lead after contact with teammate

The third matchup between teammates Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen ended in disaster. SVG was blocking aggressively as Zilisch tried to find a way around his JR Motorsports teammate. And with just 18 laps to go, the two drivers clashed.

Zilisch moved to the outside of SVG on the run down into Turn 6, but he blew the corner and went extremely wide. As Zilisch tried to get back to the racing surface, there was no room as van Gisbergen was occupying the inside lane. However, Zilisch didn’t lift, clipping his teammate, and sending SVG hard into the outside wall at Turn 7.

SVG’s car lifted off the ground due to the severity of the impact, but he was uninjured. On the radio, Zilisch gave his initial thoughts on the incident.

“I don’t know what I could have done differently,” radioed Zilisch. “He didn’t leave me any room to rejoin. “He spun off my nose … I think he thought I was clear.”

Van Gisbergen didn’t have much to say after being checked and released from the infield care center, telling The CW that he hadn’t seen a replay yet.

“Not ideal,” said van Gisbergen. “Pretty gutted, really. Gutted for the JR Motorsports guys. Our car wasn’t great, but we still managed to get ourselves in position and looked great. Pretty average way to end it.”

Zilisch went on to win the race, but he suffered a scary fall in Victory Lane. The 19-year-old fell off the car, left on a stretcher and was transported to local hospital.

Photos from Watkins Glen – RaceSammy Smith, JR Motorsprots Chevrolet