LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. might already be NASCAR’s most popular crew chief.

He’s certainly an undefeated one.

Pressed into unexpected service, Earnhardt called the shots for 18-year-old prospect Connor Zilisch in the No. 88 Chevrolet and they landed in victory lane Saturday in the second-tier Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway.

“It felt good to have some input and decision-making power,” Earnhardt said. “And then helping Connor understand what our plan was so he knew when to push and what he was expected to do.”

Earnhardt — who won NASCAR’s most-popular driver award 15 times — made a pit stop from his day job as team owner at JR Motorsports with normal crew chief Mardy Lindley suspended one race because of a lug nut infraction this month at Nashville.

Aside from his duties as team owner, Earnhardt also was at Pocono for his role on the Prime broadcast for the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday.

“Lot of fun for me today,” Earnhardt said. “I missed the thrill of competition. I love broadcast, 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. This is a lot of fun.”

Earnhardt had his wife and two young daughters in tow with him as he made the celebratory walk to victory lane. Oldest daughter Isla Rose clutched the checkered flag while youngest Nicole Lorraine soaked in the scene from her dad’s arms.

“I love that they just get to experience things about NASCAR,” Earnhardt said. “I had such a great time growing up as a kid in this sport, just running around here. I want them to have that opportunity and understand that this is a place where they could create opportunities for themselves down the road.”

The win continued a banner season for the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver — who swept two races at Pocono as a driver in 2014 — after JR Motorsports and reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier qualified for the season-opening Daytona 500 and secured their Cup Series debut.

Earnhardt won two Daytona 500s, in 2004 and 2014, and 26 races overall.

His side hustle Saturday was made a bit easier with Zilisch behind the wheel. Zilisch, who turns 19 in July, raced to his second Xfinity victory of the season and third of his young career. He won his Xfinity debut last year at Watkins Glen International.

Earnhardt even pitched in during the race and tossed tires over the wall during pit stops.

“Midway through the race man, I was feeling it,” Earnhardt said.

Zilisch took the win down to the wire and finally passed Jesse Love with five laps left in the race. Love finished second.

“Dale Junior, not too bad on the box,” Zilisch said. “Pretty cool to have him up there. Getting him a 1-for-1 win as crew chief is pretty awesome.”

Even with the victory, it just might be one-and-done on the pit box for Earnhardt.

“I don’t know that I see myself doing it again,” he said.

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LONG POND, Pa. — NASCAR weekend at Pocono Raceway is fully underway, but Sunday’s weather may be a bit uncomfortable.

“It’s sunny, I know it’s going to be hot as heck; we’re going to be definitely burning up out here, but it’s going to be definitely worth it to watch the race for sure,” said Rich Schott from Odenton, Maryland.

Our Stormtracker16 team says that on Sunday, temperatures are going to be in the 90s, and it’s going to feel closer to 95 degrees because of the humidity.

“If you look right over there, we have about 600 gallons of water, so we’re going to have a nice inflatable pool out front, so no weather is no bother to me,” said Anthony Baker from Hartsdale, New York.

It’s not a bother to a lot of fans who’ve already figured out how they’re staying cool this weekend.

“We got the umbrella; umbrella, air conditioning in the RVs, that’s enough,” said Donald Bowman from Pittsburgh.

“Oh, we stay hydrated as well as having some adult beverages every now and then too,” said Schott.

“I’m a thicker kind of guy, what I’m going to do is actually go shirtless, drink a little more Miller Lite instead of liquor, hydrate, and just deal with the heat,” said Josh Myers from Malvern, Pennsylvania.

The weather is of no object to fans who’ve been preparing for this weekend.

“We prepare all year long, like we plan, figure out what we’re going to do; I do upgrades to the bar every year, make it a little different, so everyone who comes year after year sees something different, so this is a big deal for us,” said Bowman.

“Here we set up the Pub, we have our wheel of shots, spin the wheel, you take any shot you want; we’re open all night, we got five spots here, two campers set up, and we’ll have a lot of fun this weekend,” added Baker.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR on Amazon’s Prime Video has provided fans with spectacular coverage over the past couple of weeks. Many are sad that this weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway is the final one of their five-week slate.

While Earnhardt Jr. won’t be leaving our screens just yet, as he’ll shift over to TNT for the rest of the summer, it remains to be seen if they can reach the bar Prime Video has set. From the pre-race to the post-race and everything in between, it’s been a breath of fresh air, for fans and for Earnhardt Jr. as well.

“We’re coming up on the final race of the Amazon (Prime Video) five-race package,” Earnhardt Jr. stated, via the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download. ” I knew it would be quick. It’s going to be — it’s bittersweet, because it’s been a great experience for me. Working with you guys has been fun. The whole team, really, has been really good. One race to go and then us three will move on to TNT.”

Throughout the past four-and-a-half weeks, Earnhardt Jr. has been the most popular name on Prime Video’s coverage, but other former wheelmen have provided fantastic insight, like Carl Edwards and Corey LaJoie. Additionally, Steve Letarte and Adam Alexander have helped create a well-received booth during the race.

Speaking to that, Letarte and Alexander also joined the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download. The former crew chief explained how enthusiastic he is about the job the Prime Video team has done, as they’re hoping to go out with a bang this weekend in Pennsylvania.

“We were just talking about, knock on wood, we haven’t screwed one up yet. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, and I appreciate that,” Letarte added. “I think, internally, we look at, ‘Hey, did we do what we wanted?’ Charlotte was a barn-burner. Those are the sometimes the easiest ones to cover, because they’re great on the racetrack. Then Nashville and then Michigan, we had a whole different feel. But the last 25 in Mexico was a bit strung out, because of SVG. He was out there and gone.

“So, I’ve been proud of what we’ve put out there. What I really appreciate is, it’s been effortless. Fun, I think, is the right word. It’s just been fun. Everything’s a job, but some jobs are more fun than others.”

Alas, Prime Video has set a new standard for NASCAR coverage that FOX, TNT and NBC would be wise to follow. We’ll see if Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte and Adam Alexander have the same success as the trio moves to TNT after this weekend’s race, but Prime Video’s coverage will certainly be missed until next season.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has sold his 140-acre Mooresville, North Carolina, home for a whopping $12.2 million.

Despite not officially marketing the property, the NASCAR Cup Series driver and his wife, Madyson, received a cash offer which was impossible to refuse, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The property boasts an impressive 9,000-square-foot residence approached via a sweeping circular driveway, with an outdoor entertainment area, upper pool, pool house/cabana, putting green, and state-of-the-art equestrian facilities.

On top of this, there are detached garages, a fitness facility, five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and luxury features throughout. 

As 37-year-old Stenhouse Jr. heads into race weekend at Pocono Raceway, he does so following recent on-track drama with rival Carson Hocevar. After the latter crashed into the Hyak Motorsports driver at Nashville Superspeedway, Stenhouse Jr. had said, “I’m going to beat your ass when we get back to the States,” to Hocevar in Mexico City.

However, Stenhouse Jr. has since cooled off. 

“I’ve calmed down a little bit. My wife talks me off the ledge sometimes,” Stenhouse said Friday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

“She does a good job of that. But it doesn’t change the fact that you get spun out for no reason. Felt like it cost us at least seven spots. We didn’t wreck like at Nashville, but we put ourselves in a spot. We got spun a couple times in that race.

“And just kept trying to fight back and get our track position. Felt like on that long run there at the end — there was still three or four spots right there in front of us that we could get and we ended up giving up another four or five spots.

“Just frustrating, obviously, when you got someone a lap down that had ran into you a couple weeks before that. Our talk after Nashville — he said, ‘Hey, I’m going to run you a lot different,’ which hey, at Mexico City, he waved me by. I was like, ‘Alright, things are looking up.’

“And then, he missed his marks and came from pretty far back and ran into us. Again, I know he wasn’t racing us. But it’s really frustrating for my team and our partners and myself to get spun at a stage like that where there was nothing to be raced for.”

After 16 of 36 races in 2025, Chase Elliott sits fourth in the regular season standings. While he remains winless, the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has finished inside the top 20 in every single race this year and holds the third-best average finish of all drivers.

Unless there were suddenly several new winners over the next ten weeks, his place in the playoffs is very secure, so how would he rate his season so far? Elliott agrees that it’s been a “good” season for him, but “it’s not where I want to be, no doubt.”

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Jam Media / Getty Images

He continued: “I think for us there have been some high spots and to be honest, there have been weeks where we have run well where we have had a good finish, and there have been weeks where we have not had a good finish and I can go home and be like, ‘man, we were in the mix, and we had good pace today’.

“And those are the weeks where you just want to feel like you are in the ball game as it pertains to pace, doing the right things, and getting up in there and giving yourself a shot. Those days I can go home and have something to be proud of. It’s the days and weekends where we are just not even relevant that I think are the most frustrating to me. We have had more of those than I would want to have and that we would want to have as a team. So, I think it’s been good but not satisfactory for myself or to our team, but there is still a lot of racing left in the season and I think we have ourselves in a position to make a mediocre day alright. We can build from it, and we still have a chance.”

And while consistency is nice, Elliott was quick to note hoe the current format is all about winning, especially if you want to go very far in the playoffs.

“It’s way more important to win and to get those Playoff points in fives than to have to wait till the end of the regular season and maybe get eight or ten, depending on where you finish in the points,” explained Elliott. “So, you need to have some wins, and you need to finish good in the points and then kind of double down on that to get yourself in a really good spot. The consistency is nice, no question. I think our team has done a really good job taking some of those days where we were not having a good day, and digging in, and finding a way to just get something halfway decent out of it. Sometimes that can be a really hard thing to do, and I am really proud of them for that. Because it’s easy to throw in the towel on those days, just lose it and be done and go try again next week. But we as a whole, we don’t know any better and we just keep trying, keep pushing, and make the most out of whatever the day has brought us.”

What Elliott needs to be better

Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

While Elliott’s pace has been solid, he’s rarely had winning pace. Teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson have both led over 750 laps this year while Elliott has yet to reach 100 (currently at 95 laps led). Surprisingly, even teammate Alex Bowman, who is a bit further down the standings in 12th, has led more laps than Elliott. 

In a Saturday media availability, Elliott was asked about the gap between himself and his teammates. He believes the major thing he needs to fix in order to bridge the gap is to get better at qualifying. All three of his teammates have earned at least one pole position this year while Elliott’s best start came at Martinsville. Starting second, he went on to lead 42 laps and finish fourth in one of his best showings of the year.

“I think there are a lot of things that go into that. It’s a little bit of everything truthfully, but I think probably the biggest one, is qualifying,” said Elliott. “You know I think the qualifying thing is so important and an area that I have struggled in. No doubt. So, when I look at some of the races … I look at Michigan, I think Michigan is a good example. We got ourselves up front and when that happened, I thought we were super competitive.

“It was like night and day from running around 10th to 20th and just a lot of traffic, and starting runs in traffic and it can just really dictate what your car drives like. So, I think being up front, having a really good pit stall, keeping yourself up there, it can change the complexion of your day in such a large way that it can really be overlooked. So, I think that would be really top of mind for me as I look at what is one thing that we can do to help ourselves, and I think that is probably it.” 

Fresh off his first podium finish of the year in Mexico City, Elliott now heads to Pocono where he won the Cup race back in 2022. He’s also running the Xfinity race this weekend — and started things off on a high note by earning pole position for the event.