Dale Jr. ready to lead Zilisch, No. 88 JR Motorsports team into Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. — Never has a more popular crew chief walked through the Pocono Raceway garages.

NASCAR Hall-of-Famer driver and current analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. is adding a new role to the resume this weekend, serving as crew chief of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and rookie driver Connor Zilisch for Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Pocono schedule | Xfinity standings

A typically routine, quiet Friday of unloading and pre-race technical inspection brought a bit of a crowd to the hauler of their No. 88 car. Earnhardt Jr., the team owner and 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner, happily signed autographs and took photos with fans in the midst of a brief break from preparing for his debut as a NASCAR crew chief in place of Mardy Lindley, the group’s full-time crew chief who is sidelined this week after a deffered one-race suspension for two loose lug nuts on the No. 88 car after Nashville Superspeedway.

“I’m excited to help Mardy and those guys out,” Earnhardt said Friday afternoon. “Mardy texted me a couple weeks ago about doing this, and I said I’ll do it. We’ve got a really good staff, a group of people like (Mike) Bumgarner and Patrick (Martin, interior specialist) on this team, so (there) shouldn’t be any problems or anything that we can’t handle.”

Indeed, the thought to appoint Earnhardt Jr. crew chief of the weekend stemmed from Lindley himself. Both Earnhardt Jr. and Lindley, of course, come from storied racing families — Dale Earnhardt, the late seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and Lindley’s father, Butch Lindley, the late renowned short-track racer who spent years racing head-to-head with the elder Earnhardt.

“You’ve got to think back to between the the history between the Earnhardt and the Lindley family, dad racing against Butch, the respect level they had,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “Madty and dad had a relationship. Dad would get Mardy involved in our Xfinity team back when Jeff Green was driving it. I remember riding in a van, pulling over on the side of the interstate and picking Mardy up to go to races in Atlanta and so forth. … So Mardy and me have been connected for years. I think maybe that’s why (I) was the first person who sprung to mind.”

As someone who’s driven to 50 wins across the Cup and Xfinity series, broadcasted crown-jewel races and co-owned an Xfinity team for two decades, there aren’t many new things for Earnhardt to do in NASCAR. But Earnhardt has missed making a tangible impact on the race track since stepping out of the Cup Series driver’s seat in 2017 and occasional starts in the Xfinity Series through 2024. As the crew chief this weekend, Earnhardt be directly involved in how Zilisch and the No. 88 team finish Saturday afternoon.

“It’s way more fun than being the owner,” Earnhardt said. “When you’re the owner, you don’t do anything and there’s nothing you can provide of assistance during the race weekend. There’s nothing that you do that makes or breaks the weekend or assists the team in performance, and it sucks. I used to be a driver and had a role, right? And when you win, you get out and go, ‘I was part of that,’ right? When you’re the owner, you’re just kind of standing there going, ‘Good job, everybody.’ So this is way more fun.”

On the other end of Earnhardt’s headset will be driver Zilisch, the 18-year-old rookie who will be making his inaugural Pocono Mountains appearance Saturday. Standing outside the hauler Friday, talking with veterans like Earnhardt, JRM teammate Justin Allgaier and former racer and current analyst Jamie McMurray, Zilisch found himself still in a bit of disbelief that Earnhardt would truly be atop the pit box as crew chief this weekend.

“It all came together pretty quickly — and at first, I didn’t even realize it was gonna be real,” Zilisch told NASCAR.com. “I just assumed that Cory Shea, the crew chief of the 9 (JRM’s part-time car), was gonna come and do it. But yeah, considering Dale’s already here doing the broadcast, it’ll be something cool for him to check off his bucket list. He’s been super, super involved. He came to our pre-race meeting this week and went to pit practice and figured out how to roll a tire. So, yeah, it’s really cool to have him not only doing it but putting in the effort to do it right.”

Earnhardt has taken the opportunity to return to competition seriously. He has brought his own notes to meetings and indeed participated in a Thursday pit practice at Trackhouse Racing, preparing the catch the right-front tire at the pit wall and roll the left-front tire to the changer during the pit stop.

“I didn’t want to just show up on race day and climb on the box before the race started,” Earnhardt said. “We sat in meetings this week and got a notebook and got an understanding of all the things that have been coming our way, and Mardy did a good job to prepare me and give me the information I need. I feel like being here and being present is good for Patrick and the team, all of the individuals that have been working on this car to see that I’m invested.

“There’s probably over 100 people at JR Motorsports that would have been more qualified, but Mardy asked me to do it so I was like, ‘You must want me to do it.\””

MORE: Earnhardt’s 2014 sweep among Pocono’s memorable moments

In the 400-mile Cup Series races, strategy at Pocono is a premium. But with a 250-mile race at Pocono for the Xfinity Series, Earnhardt enters with a set of plays at his fingertips.

“It’s pretty straightforward,” Earnhardt said of the strategy. “I mean, you could flip the stages if you’re within 10 seconds of the leader, and you might want to do that in the second stage, and that’ll be probably on the table. But really, if we’re running in the top three or the top two, for sure, you’ve got to figure out how to jump those guys on that pit stop at stage three if you can — get to pit road before them, run a lap or two and try to come out in front. So that’s kind of the thing: track position — trying to create track position if your car is good enough.”

While Earnhardt will learn plenty about being crew chief this weekend, Zilisch also sees this weekend as an opportunity to learn firsthand from a Hall-of-Famer and two-time Xfinity champion like Earnhardt. Earnhardt is a two-time Cup race winner at Pocono and has already imparted some advice to Zilisch in the pre-race meeting.

“It’s gonna be super cool for me, and something that I’ll remember for a long time,” Zilisch said. “I’m gonna have to figure out how to get some piece of memorabilia off the car or something so I can remember this race. But yeah, I’m really excited for it. It’s just so cool to have a guy with as much wisdom and experience as him crew-chiefing the car. I’m excited to get after it and see how we can do together. I’m curious to see if he has anything to teach me throughout the weekend, whether it’s about driving or managing emotions, whatever it may be. He’s been a big help as a team owner, but like you said, with him being a little more tuned in and connected this weekend, he may learn a little bit more about me that he’s able to help with.”

Co-owning a team that fields four or five cars every week, Earnhardt is no stranger to team pit boxes. But this one will come with a different role that he finds himself eagerly anticipating.

“I’ve sat on plenty of pit boxes, but it should be cool to see it from this perspective,” Earnhardt said.

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