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NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in his first race as a crew chief on Saturday, guiding driver Connor Zilisch to victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway. Earnhardt was making a one-off appearance atop the pit box for the No. 88 JR Motorsports team, filling in for Mardy Lindley who was serving a one-race suspension for improperly secured lug nuts found in post-race inspection at Nashville Superspeedway.

After qualifying ninth, Zilisch worked his way to the front thanks in large part to Earnhardt's strategy calls, which had the No. 88 at the top of the leaderboard by the end of stage 2. Earnhardt then had Zilisch run to the end of his fuel window before pitting under green, which paid dividends when a well-timed caution allowed Zilisch to cycle back to the lead while the other frontrunners came to pit road under yellow.

Despite losing the lead to Chase Elliott shortly afterwards, Zilisch stayed in the game and capitalized on a series of restarts, finally getting the lead back from Jesse Love with under five laps to go and pulling away for his second win of the season and third of his Xfinity career.

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It was all in a day's work for Earnhardt, who did everything from call changes to the setup and pit strategy to assisting his pit crew by catching tires from behind the pit wall. Speaking to CW Sports after the checkered flag, Earnhardt credited the help of former crew chief and broadcaster partner Steve Letarte, who once guided him to a late-career renaissance that included a sweep of Pocono in 2014 as well as a win in the 2014 Daytona 500.

"We had a lot of things go our way. A lot of good luck, great strategy. Had a little help from Letarte up here," Earnhardt told The CW Sports. "... I have missed the thrill of competition. I love broadcasting, don't get me wrong, but nothing compares to driving or just being kind of part of the team, and being an owner doesn't really deliver like this. This is a lot of fun."

Earnhardt's win as a crew chief is the latest addition to his resume in Xfinity competition, which includes 24 career wins as a driver and back-to-back series championships in 1998 and 1999. Earnhardt has also won four series championships as the co-owner of JR Motorsports, including the 2024 title with Justin Allgaier.

Earnhardt also now joins a select group in NASCAR history to have won races both as a driver and crew chief, joining names such as Junior Johnson, Cotton Owens, Lee Petty and others.