Connor Zilisch and crew chief Dale Earnhardt Jr. win Pocono NASCAR Xfinity race

18-year-old Connor Zilisch earned his first oval win Saturday at Pocono Raceway, and he did it with help from ‘rookie’ crew chief and JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. atop the box. Zilisch made the pass for the win on Jesse Love with just a few laps to go before hanging on to capture the checkered flag.

“I’ve been dying for this one for a while now,” said Zilisch. “I know it hasn’t felt like that long but man, I’ve been so close on the ovals lately. I finished second at Charlotte, second at Nashville and yeah, Dale Jr.’s not so bad on the box. Pretty cool to have him up there. Thank you so much to the entire JR Motorsports team. 

About working with Dale Jr., Zilisch added: “It’s pretty funny, he [Earnhardt] was kicking me in the ass on some of those restarts, giving me some advice. The advice from him is advice well taken from me so it’s really cool to have him and get him 1-1 with a win as a crew chief. That’s pretty awesome as well. But yeah, Marty did everything right to set this car up as well and I wish he could have been on the box today.”

As for the winning crew chief, Earnhardt said of the experience:  “(Regular crew chief Mardy Lindley) did a great job putting us in a position to succeed and we had a lot of things go our way, a lot of good luck and great strategy. Had a little help from [Steve] Letarte up here … he was a big help. But everybody on this team, just amazing all weekend long. And one great race car driver in Connor Zilisch. He’s going to be a big deal in this sport for a long time. A lot of fun for me today.”

Earnhardt continued: “I miss the thrill of competition. I love broadcasting, don’t get me wrong, but nothing compares to driving or just being part of the team. Being an owner doesn’t really deliver like this. It was a lot of fun.”

Christian Eckes ended up with a career-best finish of third, pole-sitter Chase Elliott in fourth, and Ryan Sieg fifth. Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Sammy Smith, Taylor Gray, and Justin Allgaier filled out the remainder of the top ten.

The run to the finish

The NASCAR Xfinity race at Pocono featured a record ten cautions with various incidents throughout the 100-lap event. The final stage of the race started the way things ended up finishing with Zilisch leading Love, but a lot happened in those final 45 laps.

As drivers worked to hit their fuel number, Zilisch stayed out until Elliott was about to run him down, diving to the pits. Earnhardt, who was already working as the crew chief, came down off the pit box to help as a tire catcher. 

But before Elliott could respond, there was a caution for a single-car spin. That pushed Zilisch back to the lead and put Elliott on the second row for a restart with 25 laps to go. Elliott managed to get back to the race lead in time for the next restart, which came with 15 laps to go. But yet another incident forced the leaders to do it all over again.

While Elliott was strong on every restart, this one would not go his way. With 13 laps to go, he lined up alongside Allgaier. The reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion got sideways as the field entered Turn 1. He hit Elliott’s door and while both drivers managed to avoid an incident, they also lost several spots as the cars slid up the track.

This cleared the way for Love, who now led the race with just six laps to go. Zilisch gave him a friendly push to get clear of Eckes on what would be the final restart before taking the lead for himself soon after.

While this is Zilisch’s first win on an oval, it is his third career win as a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver. And according to reporter Seth Eggert, Dale Jr. is just the ninth person in history have won in NASCAR as a driver, owner, and crew chief.