No matter what anyone in NASCAR does, there invariably are going to be critics. Such was the case last weekend at Pocono, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. filled in for Mardy Lindley, who served a one-race suspension due to loose lugnuts a couple of weeks earlier at Nashville.
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To some, Earnhardt’s appearance on the pit box was nothing more than a PR stunt because of his name recognition. But Earnhardt proved his mettle — and perhaps even opened up another career opportunity for himself — when he led Connor Zilisch to victory in the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.
Veteran crew chief turned broadcast analyst Steve Letarte was very vocal in his support of what Earnhardt did. After all, it’s hard to diss a guy who is a NASCAR Hall of Famer, a successful Xfinity Series team co-owner and, of course, the son of the late Dale Earnhardt.
On this week’s edition of NASCAR: Inside the Race LIVE, Letarte waxed effusive about what Dale Jr. did, what Zilisch did and what it meant to the sport.
“I thought it was good for the sport because I don’t think that’s why they did it” Letarte said. “I don’t think their goal was to make a story out of it, literally… Mardy was like, ‘Why don’t you do it?’ Dale even said on one of his interviews, ‘There’s 80 people that should have done it before me.’
“But he was so invested and he talked about in one of his interviews how as an owner, his work is done before race day. He hires the people and gets the money and the sponsors and he does the business side. So he goes, ‘Sometimes you can feel disconnected when your cars are winning.’
“He goes, ‘I love winning. I love competing. But it’s not like I grabbed a tire or made a pit call. I’m part of the ownership group’ — him and his sister Kelly. And he climbed off the pit box, rolled a tire, he was all-in. He did the entire role top to bottom…
“It wasn’t a PR stunt. It was well covered. I thought it was good. CW (the TV network) did an amazing job. I watched some of the coverage back and I thought it was great for the fans and great for Dale. Win, lose or draw, it was a great story.”
Letarte believes Zilisch couldn’t have had a better mentor than Dale Jr.
Earnhardt may have had beginner’s luck in his first stint as a crew chief, but there’s no question he imparted much of his own NASCAR knowledge to Zilisch, who soaked up Junior’s words like a sponge.
“He (Dale) is like, ‘Hey, you need a side draft like this and do this and do this,’ and he’s giving this guy like play-by-play of what he needs to do different and Connor is basically absorbing it all and it was so good. Like at one point, he asked on the restart, ‘Hey, should I like just not accelerate as much and let the (No.) 2 get there?’ And Dale’s like, ‘Oh no, no, he needs to get to your bumper. Don’t do that,’” Letarte continued.
“Dale’s giving this knowledge, there’s so much there. That’s Connor’s first trip to Pocono, he doesn’t know where else to go. (Junior says) ‘Hey man, we’re gonna run this funny, three-cornered oval, triangle-shaped thing with nearly a 4,000 foot straightaway.’
“Like how do you learn a track like that without doing it and he has Dale on the radio… What was magical is Dale coaching this guy… ‘Hey try this, you need to side draft, check your mirror here.’ He’s just giving this kid so much information.”
In any case, Dale Jr. proved his enduring value to the sport — even in a different role.
