It may have been beginner’s luck for Dale Earnhardt Jr., but it was veteran’s remorse for Kyle Busch. Earnhardt surprisingly won his first-ever race as a crew chief Saturday when Connor Zilisch won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.
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Earnhardt filled in for Zilisch’s usual crew chief, Mardy Lindley, who had to sit out Saturday’s race as a penalty for not having enough lug nuts tightened on Zilisch’s car in post-race inspection three weeks ago at Nashville.
But even with Junior’s success, Busch was the man front-and-center both before and after the race. Prior to the race, Busch quipped about Earnhardt as a crew chief with a laugh.
“It’s all publicity, but spin it how you want it. He’s just going to be a warm body sitting on top of the box. They have enough stuff from the shop and enough technology these days of being able to having the crew chief still involved,” he said.
But after the race, Busch took to X/Twitter and, while he didn’t apologize for his earlier words, he did try to clarify his meaning.
“This has nothing to do with any animosity towards Dale Jr.,” Busch wrote. “I’m referencing how silly the suspensions for crew chief are these days with all the technology they have to stay in contact with their teams. I’d say the same thing if JG (Jeff Gordon) went on an HMS (Hendrick Motorsports pit) box as a crew chief.”
Junior retires as a crew chief with a perfect career record
So unless he comes back for an encore at some point in the future, Junior now has a perfect 1-0 record as a crew chief.
“When we have an issue like this with somebody being suspended, Mardy and everybody they know what to do,” Earnhardt said. “So just 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, great strategy, had a little help from (fellow broadcaster and former Cup crew chief Steve) Letarte up here… He was a big help.
“Everybody on this team, just amazing all weekend long and what a great race by Connor Zilisch. He is going to be a big deal in this sport for a long time.”
As for having Junior on his pit box and on the team radio, Zilisch thought it was a hoot. “It’s pretty funny,” Zilisch said of Earnhardt.
“He 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, yeah, it was really cool to have him and to get him a one-for-one win as a crew chief is pretty awesome.”
For Dale Earnhardt Jr., this might be yet another story he can proudly narrate — one where he stepped in, called the shots, and walked away undefeated.
