Dale Earnhardt Jr. took up a new role at the Pocono Raceway last Saturday. Following the one-race suspension of Mardy Lindley, Connor Zilisch’s crew chief, he filled in by serving as a crew chief for the first time in his career. He ended up helping Zilisch get to Victory Lane and the taste of success has left him wanting more.
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NASCAR has penalized the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team for a main frame rail conical receiver violation. It has also been announced that crew chief Adam Wall will be suspended for three races as punishment. With veteran reporter Bob Pockrass announcing this on his X handle, Junior responded to him with a hilarious tweet.
He wrote, “Texting Ives now….” along with the meme image of a man waiting eagerly behind a tree. Greg Ives is a Hendrick Motorsports icon who served as a crew chief for JR Motorsports in the 2025 Daytona 500. Junior’s tweet drew a slew of replies from fans who were satisfied with his maiden outing in the pit box and wanted nothing more than to see more of it.
One fan said, “The seed has been planted now he is unstoppable.” Another laughed, “Holy f—k I’m dying man.” One more added, “Dude is on fire this week with these tweets.” Perhaps the best reaction of them all came from former crew chief Rodney Childers. He said, “Don’t be hogging them all!!”
Don’t be hogging them all!! https://t.co/JndJ2yPD56
— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) June 25, 2025
Childers last worked as a crew chief for the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team before parting ways following professional misunderstandings. The void in the No. 17 team is something he might be hoping to fill, should Junior not step in. Originally, Junior had never been interested in being involved with race day execution from the pit box.
It had taken some convincing from Lindley for him to agree to do it. He told the press ahead of the Pocono weekend, “There are 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.’ … We have a great team and a great organization that can handle these types of challenges. Should be no problem.”
They did end up handling the challenge better than anybody else would have. Zilisch was equally thrilled to have one of NASCAR’s biggest heroes guiding him to his second Victory Lane appearance of the season. It remains to be seen if Junior will hit the bullseye once again by taking up the mantle with the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports team.
