Connor Zilisch gives Dale Earnhardt Jr. his first NASCAR win as a crew chief
LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the role seriously. He attended meetings. He took notes. He was at a pit practice.
When the Xfinity Series garage opened Friday afternoon at at Pocono Raceway, he was there.
This was not a publicity stunt or a chance to add another line to his Hall of Fame resume. Earnhardt was committed to filling the role vacated by Mardy Lindley, who was serving a one-race suspension after Connor Zilisch's car had multiple lug nuts not secure earlier this month at Nashville.
It was Lindley who suggested that Earnhardt, co-owner of the JR Motorsports car, take the role of crew chief for Saturday's race. Earnhardt accepted, having never served in that role in a NASCAR national series race.
MORE: Pocono Xfinity results
Zilisch took the lead with five laps to go to score his third career Xfinity win (first on an oval) and give Earnhardt the win as crew chief.
'Certainly more of an adrenaline rush than being an owner,' Earnhardt said after becoming one of the few in NASCAR to have a win as a driver, owner and crew chief. 'I love owning race cars, and I love racking up statistics and championships, but it does not have the competitive sort of skin in the game, if you will, this specific day does.
'When you're the crew chief, you're under a ton of pressure. I understand that I did not come in here and handle all of the layers that Mardy usually handles or any given crew chief manages, They were certainly putting me in a position to do some light lifting. As the race went on, we got more comfortable and more aggressive and it was fun.
'Felt like I really had some involvement and input in the energy that the crew had ... keeping them pumped up and keeping everybody executing, keeping Connor aware of what our goals were, what our expectations were on these restarts. He wanted to deliver on all those expectations. I felt like in that aspect it was a good day.'
#NASCAR … Crew chief Dale Jr. welcomes Connor Zilisch to victory lane after the Pocono Xfinity race. pic.twitter.com/DcGbS8arUg
The hardest part of the day for Earnhardt?
Climbing down the pit box to stand behind the pit wall and roll a tire to the carrier during a pit stop.
'I think the one thing I was most nervous about was actually setting that left front tire. ... There's a tenth (of a second) or two or even half a second between how far you can get it out there to (the tire carrier). You need that stripe up so he knows where the lugs are and to place the tire quickly. All these things are very minute, but they're important that he grabs the tire from you in a certain way, and I didn't want to mess that up.'
#NASCAR … Crew chief Dale Jr helping on the tire duties behind the pit wall on Connor Zilisch's first pit stop in the Xfinity race at Pocono pic.twitter.com/V8o3lMr8rJ
Jesse Love finished second and was followed by Christian Eckes, Chase Elliott and Ryan Sieg.
Stage 1 winner: Brandon Jones
Stage 2 winner: Connor Zilisch
Next: The series races at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday, June 27 at Atlanta.
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