Apparently, the missing ingredient for Connor Zilisch’s first oval victory was a rookie crew chief, and that was none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself, who owns the No. 88 NASCAR Chevy in the Xfinity Series. Dale Jr. stepped in for regular crew chief Mardy Lindley, who was suspended for one race, and talked his young driver to the front at Pocono Raceway on June 21st, 2025.
Zilisch scrapped hard with fellow NASCAR Chevy driver, Jesse Love, in a series of late-race restarts. Zilisch went wheel-to-wheel with Love, pulling alongside him with just four laps left on the board. With three laps left, he surged into the lead, opening up a 0.437-second advantage by the time the checkers fell.
And he did it all with Dale Jr. in his ear. While he’d never served as crew chief before, Dale Jr. is no stranger to success at Pocono – aka “Tricky Triangle” – having won both time the Cup Series visited the track in 2014. Not only did he call the shots from the box, he jumped down into the pit box and lent a hand to the crew during pit stops.
“Hats off to everybody on this team,” Dale Jr. said. “It’s been amazing all weekend long. Great race car driver. Connor Zilisch is going to be a big deal in this sport for a long time. A lot of fun for me today.”
Zilisch was equally ecstatic, saying, “I’ve been dying for this one for a while now, I’ve been so close on the ovals lately. I finished second at Charlotte, second at Nashville.”
He added, “And Dale Jr., not too bad on the box. Pretty cool to have him up there. Thank you so much to the entire JR Motorsports team… this one is definitely special. I’ve been chasing an oval win for a while now.”
Love’s No. 2 NASCAR Chevy finished second, followed by the No. 16 Chevy of Christian Eckes in third, the No. 17 Chevy of Chase Elliott in fourth, while the No. 39 Ford Mustang Dark Horse of Ryan Sieg rounded out the top five.
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Junior is no stranger to the mechanical side of things.
Dale Sr. raised Dale Jr. the right way.