Keep on celebrating.
For many years now, NASCAR drivers have celebrated a win by climbing out of their car and hopping up on the roof in Victory Lane. In fact, one of the most iconic celebrations in the sport’s history came back during the 2001 Pepsi 400 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrated his emotional win after the death of his father by standing on top of his car in the infield with teammate Michael Waltrip.
Now, there were a few years when NASCAR put an end to the celebration. They even had a PVC barrier that they would put around the car to block the drivers from climbing on top. It’s so ridiculous that you have to see it for yourself if you don’t remember those days…
And during the “Car of Tomorrow” era, drivers generally refrained from standing on their cars because of minimum height requirements: They didn’t want their car to fail inspection because it didn’t meet minimum height due to the driver standing on top of it during the celebration.
But in recent years we’ve seen more and more drivers bring the iconic celebration back to Victory Lane, and honestly, I’m here for it.
After this weekend, though, there were fears that NASCAR could crack down on the longstanding tradition.
In case you somehow missed it, NASCAR Xfinity Series points leader Connor Zilisch suffered a broken collarbone after falling off his car in Victory Lane, an scary moment that quickly turned embarrassing for the 19-year old rookie phenom:
Luckily the injuries weren’t any more severe, and Zilisch announced this morning that he had surgery on his broken collarbone to hopefully speed up the recovery. Although the wristband that they put on him in the hospital seemed like an unnecessary shot…
And on Monday, Zilisch appeared on the popular racing podcast Door Bumper Clear, where he revealed that at least one driver told him that their team’s competition director informed their drivers that they were no longer allowed to stand on top of their car after a win:
“A driver, we’re at the airport and he goes, ‘Yeah, in our pre-race meeting today…their comp director or whoever said that if we win we can’t stand on the car anymore.’ It was like a new rule for them.”
He wouldn’t reveal which driver or team it was, but after the Cup Series race on Sunday, winner Shane Van Gisbergen appeared to be pretty careful getting out of his car:
Zilisch, like Van Gisbergen, is also signed to Trackhouse Racing, and is widely expected to move up to the Cup Series next year to take over the #99 car after the team announced earlier this year that they would be parting ways with Daniel Suarez. So it might be smart for them to go ahead and implement the “no standing on the car” rule now (or as the DBC crew called it, “the Connor rule”) just to make sure they don’t risk any more injuries to their drivers.
And Denny Hamlin also revealed on his podcast that you won’t see him standing on his car any time soon either. While discussing the incident, the driver said that his days of climbing on top of his car are over:
“I’d still be in the hospital. I mean, to be young again…holy crap. There’s no way. I don’t think I’m ever going to stand on top of my car again.”
But as for NASCAR themselves, it seems they have no intention of policing the victory lane celebrations (which means no return of the PVC pipe barricade).
During an episode of NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast, managing director of communications Mike Forde confirmed that NASCAR would not be prohibiting drivers from standing on their cars:
“We have not put in any policies or best practices or anything like that.”
He did say, though, that NASCAR officials might step in just to make sure that there aren’t any hazards before a driver gets out to celebrate, like the window net hanging outside of the car:
“I think that was part of the problem that the window net was flapping on the outside. I think Connor even said that may have been a problem, and one of our safety guys actually mentioned the same thing. So, we may do just sort of a check to make sure that if that’s inside the car, it’s one less thing you can slip on.”
Of course, just because NASCAR isn’t going to tell drivers not to stand on their cars doesn’t mean that individual teams won’t limit the celebrations. Teams put a lot of money into their drivers, and if they’re concerned about them getting hurt when they stand on their car, they have a strong incentive to do whatever it takes to keep their guys from getting injured.
We’ll have to keep an eye on the winners the next few weeks and see what they do.
