Dale Earnhardt Jr. to crew chief for Connor Zilisch in NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is adding another title to his NASCAR resumé.
Earnhardt Jr. will serve as the crew chief for Connor Zilisch in the Xfinity Series race at Pocono on Saturday. Zilisch's crew chief Mardy Lindley is serving a one-race suspension for loose lug nuts on Zilisch's car at the end of the race in Nashville earlier this month.
Junior is the co-owner of Zilisch's JR Motorsports car and his team fields four cars in NASCAR's second-tier series. Zilisch's teammate Justin Allgaier won the 2024 Xfinity Series title for the first NASCAR championship of his career.
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Zilisch, 18, already has one win over 14 races this season in the Xfinity Series. The road course ace won the third race of the season when he led 26 laps at Circuit of the Americas for the second victory of his career. He missed the 12th race of the season because of a back injury sustained in a hard crash late in the race at Talladega. He returned at Charlotte and has finished second, second and fifth in the last three races.
Pocono could be a race filled with strategy based on how the cautions fall on Saturday. The 2.5-mile track allows drivers near the front of the field to pit under green without losing a lap. If there are long green-flag runs during the first two stages, you'll likely see many drivers in the top 10 forego stage points to pit before the end of the stages and cycle back towards the front of the field during the stage break.
After he crew chiefs Zilisch on Saturday, Junior will be in the booth for Amazon Prime again on Sunday. The NASCAR Hall of Famer is the lead analyst for Amazon and TNT's NASCAR coverage this season. Amazon has two more Cup Series races left in 2025 before TNT takes over for five races ahead of NBC's portion of the schedule.
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