LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a 100% win rate as a NASCAR crew chief.
The Hall-of-Fame driver, two-time Xfinity Series champion and current JR Motorsports team co-owner helped guide rookie Connor Zilisch and the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet to the win in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series at Pocono Raceway.
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Earnhardt found himself atop the pit box subbing for Mardy Lindley, suspended one race after two loose lug nuts were found on the No. 88 car at Nashville. With him to help was his former crew chief and Prime Video broadcast partner, Steve Letarte, as well as Mike Bumgarner and Patrick Martin. But from making the ultimate strategy calls to assisting the pit crew from behind the wall during stops, Earnhardt got exactly what he was looking for out of the weekend: contributing to the outcome in a meaningful way, this time ending in Victory Lane.
“I felt like I really did have a role today that was probably even more than I anticipated,” Earnhardt said. “But I did get a big assist from out of the gate. Mardy, Pat and all the guys on this team, we all sat down at meetings early in the week, understood what we needed to accomplish, had an idea in a game plan, right? We’d come off the trailer fast, car’s comfortable. That was helpful. So we were ready for the race.”
Letarte was more than just a friendly face sitting on the box. A Cup Series crew chief for Earnhardt from 2011-2014 with two wins together at Pocono in 2014, Letarte offered his own input to help Earnhardt navigate the strategy game from pit road to best position Zilisch for success on the track.
“As the race is playing out, Letarte’s sitting up there with us and he’s like, ‘Here’s an opportunity to kind of do what we didn’t do back in 2014,\"” Earnhardt said. “So we went for it, made the gamble. I’m glad Steve was up here to kind of help us understand what possibilities were on the table. We’ll have to have him come to the beer toast.”
Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway is tucked neatly into a corner near the Cup Series garage, directly in the paddock area where fans can gather and partake in the celebration from not-so-far. The crowd huddled around the barriers to shower Earnhardt, Zilisch and Co. with cheers, chanting each of their names while they went through the “hat dance” of sponsor photos in celebration, a reminder that Earnhardt hasn’t lost any of his popularity since his days of winning 15 consecutive Most Popular Driver Awards.
Also there to soak in the celebration were his wife Amy and their two girls Isla and Nicole. That perhaps meant more to Earnhardt than anything on Saturday.
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“I don’t think I’ll ever get to take them to Victory Lane as a driver, so I love that they get to experience just things about NASCAR,” said Earnhardt, son of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. “I had such a great time growing up as a kid in this sport just running around here and and I want them to have that opportunity and understand that this is a place where they could create opportunities for themselves down the road. I’ll let them do what they want to do with their lives, and steer themselves where they want to go and support everything they want to do. But I certainly want them to want them to know that NASCAR is an option and exists and and there’s so many possibilities.
“And if they’re enjoying being around it, they can find ways to make a living at it. So we’ll see. These are core memories, that they make, I believe, walking down pit road and going to Victory Lane.”
Going into the weekend, Earnhardt never imagined he and Zilisch would walk away as winners. Zilisch had yet to win on a track that wasn’t a road course and Earnhardt had never served as a crew chief in his storied career. But with help from Letarte, Earnhardt’s decision to leave Zilisch out at the conclusion of Stage 2 rather than pitting him and forfeitting the 10 regular-season points and one playoff point that come with a stage victory ultimately paid dividends late on Saturday evening.
“Steve was definitely all about that strategy,” Earnhardt said. “That’s really right up his alley. But I was nervous because I don’t have Mardy there to really tell me confidently, ‘This is the fuel mileage we’re getting.’ We were in traffic when we were measuring our fuel all day, and then when we get to the lead, the fuel mileage changes a little bit. So you’ve got to adhere to those changes and understand you really can’t push the car and run him out of gas. That’s really one of the last things I wanted to do today.
“So there’s a lot of conversation up there to figure it out and finally land on something we can feel confident about. And so I felt it felt good to have some input and and decision-making power, if you will.”
He also offered advice to Zilisch about restarts and techniques, continuing conversations between the two that began midweek.
“He was asking some questions about what he should do,” Earnhardt said, “and I was thankful that he wanted to know those answers because I definitely didn’t want him doing what he thought he should do. But I know he’s the kind of guy that’s like, ‘Hey, tell me everything. There’s not enough information.\"”
That information worked, on the final restart of Saturday’s race, Zilisch charged to the left of Jesse Love exiting Turn 3 to pounce for the lead with four laps to go.
The end result? A perfect success rate for Earnhardt as a crew chief.
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