See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
See where your favorite NASCAR Xfinity Series driver will pit for the Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
See where your favorite NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver will pit for the MillerTech Battery 200 at Pocono Raceway on Friday (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LONG POND, Pa. — Never has a more popular crew chief walked through the Pocono Raceway garages.
NASCAR Hall-of-Fame driver and current analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. is adding a new role to the resume this weekend, serving as crew chief of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and rookie driver Connor Zilisch for Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A typically routine, quiet Friday of unloading and pre-race technical inspection brought a bit of a crowd to the hauler of their No. 88 car. Earnhardt Jr., the team owner and 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner, happily signed autographs and took photos with fans in the midst of a brief break from preparing for his debut as a NASCAR crew chief in place of Mardy Lindley, the group’s full-time crew chief who is sidelined this week after a deffered one-race suspension for two loose lug nuts on the No. 88 car after Nashville Superspeedway.
“I’m excited to help Mardy and those guys out,” Earnhardt said Friday afternoon. “Mardy texted me a couple weeks ago about doing this, and I said I’ll do it. We’ve got a really good staff, a group of people like (Mike) Bumgarner and Patrick (Martin, interior specialist) on this team, so (there) shouldn’t be any problems or anything that we can’t handle.”
Indeed, the thought to appoint Earnhardt Jr. crew chief of the weekend stemmed from Lindley himself. Both Earnhardt Jr. and Lindley, of course, come from storied racing families — Dale Earnhardt, the late seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and Lindley’s father, Butch Lindley, the late renowned short-track racer who spent years racing head-to-head with the elder Earnhardt.
“You’ve got to think back to between the the history between the Earnhardt and the Lindley family, dad racing against Butch, the respect level they had,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “Mardy and dad had a relationship. Dad would get Mardy involved in our Xfinity team back when Jeff Green was driving it. I remember riding in a van, pulling over on the side of the interstate and picking Mardy up to go to races in Atlanta and so forth. … So Mardy and me have been connected for years. I think maybe that’s why (I) was the first person who sprung to mind.”
As someone who’s driven to 50 wins across the Cup and Xfinity series, broadcasted crown-jewel races and co-owned an Xfinity team for two decades, there aren’t many new things for Earnhardt to do in NASCAR. But Earnhardt has missed making a tangible impact on the race track since stepping out of the Cup Series driver’s seat in 2017 and occasional starts in the Xfinity Series through 2024. As the crew chief this weekend, Earnhardt will be directly involved in how Zilisch and the No. 88 team finish Saturday afternoon.
“It’s way more fun than being the owner,” Earnhardt said. “When you’re the owner, you don’t do anything and there’s nothing you can provide of assistance during the race weekend. There’s nothing that you do that makes or breaks the weekend or assists the team in performance, and it sucks. I used to be a driver and had a role, right? And when you win, you get out and go, ‘I was part of that,’ right? When you’re the owner, you’re just kind of standing there going, ‘Good job, everybody.’ So this is way more fun.”
On the other end of Earnhardt’s headset will be driver Zilisch, the 18-year-old rookie who will be making his inaugural Pocono Mountains appearance Saturday. Standing outside the hauler Friday, talking with veterans like Earnhardt, JRM teammate Justin Allgaier and former racer and current analyst Jamie McMurray, Zilisch found himself still in a bit of disbelief that Earnhardt would truly be atop the pit box as crew chief this weekend.
“It all came together pretty quickly — and at first, I didn’t even realize it was gonna be real,” Zilisch told NASCAR.com. “I just assumed that Cory Shea, the crew chief of the 9 (JRM’s part-time car), was gonna come and do it. But yeah, considering Dale’s already here doing the broadcast, it’ll be something cool for him to check off his bucket list. He’s been super, super involved. He came to our pre-race meeting this week and went to pit practice and figured out how to roll a tire. So, yeah, it’s really cool to have him not only doing it but putting in the effort to do it right.”
Earnhardt has taken the opportunity to return to competition seriously. He has brought his own notes to meetings and indeed participated in a Thursday pit practice at Trackhouse Racing, preparing to catch the right-front tire at the pit wall and roll the left-front tire to the changer during the pit stop.
“I didn’t want to just show up on race day and climb on the box before the race started,” Earnhardt said. “We sat in meetings this week and got a notebook and got an understanding of all the things that have been coming our way, and Mardy did a good job to prepare me and give me the information I need. I feel like being here and being present is good for Patrick and the team, all of the individuals that have been working on this car to see that I’m invested.
“There’s 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.'”
In the 400-mile Cup Series races, strategy at Pocono is a premium. But with a 250-mile race at Pocono for the Xfinity Series, Earnhardt enters with a set of plays at his fingertips.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” Earnhardt said of the strategy. “I mean, you could flip the stages if you’re within 10 seconds of the leader, and you might want to do that in the second stage, and that’ll be probably on the table. But really, if we’re running in the top three or the top two, for sure, you’ve got to figure out how to jump those guys on that pit stop at stage three if you can — get to pit road before them, run a lap or two and try to come out in front. So that’s kind of the thing: track position — trying to create track position if your car is good enough.”
While Earnhardt will learn plenty about being crew chief this weekend, Zilisch also sees this weekend as an opportunity to learn firsthand from a Hall-of-Famer and two-time Xfinity champion like Earnhardt. Earnhardt is a two-time Cup race winner at Pocono and has already imparted some advice to Zilisch in the pre-race meeting.
“It’s gonna be super cool for me, and something that I’ll remember for a long time,” Zilisch said. “I’m gonna have to figure out how to get some piece of memorabilia off the car or something so I can remember this race. But yeah, I’m really excited for it. It’s just so cool to have a guy with as much wisdom and experience as him crew-chiefing the car. I’m excited to get after it and see how we can do together. I’m curious to see if he has anything to teach me throughout the weekend, whether it’s about driving or managing emotions, whatever it may be. He’s been a big help as a team owner, but like you said, with him being a little more tuned in and connected this weekend, he may learn a little bit more about me that he’s able to help with.”
Co-owning a team that fields four or five cars every week, Earnhardt is no stranger to team pit boxes. But this one will come with a different role that he finds himself eagerly anticipating.
“I’ve sat on plenty of pit boxes, but it should be cool to see it from this perspective,” Earnhardt said.
So, Shane van Gisbergen got his road-course victory and is locked into the playoffs — now what?
Well, if you are a Cup Series driver still without a victory this season, the trends don’t favor you becoming the 11th postseason driver entering Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The last 11 races at Pocono have been won by a driver ranked sixth or better in the playoff standings, according to Racing Insights.
How should you approach the “Tricky Triangle” if you aren’t a Larson, Hamlin or Bell? Go for stage points.
For Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher, they are all points racing each other to get above one another in the event another winner emerges from outside the top 16. Staying out the whole 30 laps for a possible stage win and/or points will be vital to these four wheelmen in their quest for a playoff berth.
Let’s take a closer look at the whole playoff bubble right now and who could improve or worsen their postseason hopes this weekend in the Pocono Mountains.
Playoff Probabilities provided by Racing Insights (entering Pocono)
I am dedicating this section to both Chase Elliott (98.96% playoff probability) and Tyler Reddick (98.63% playoff probability) for this weekend. I’m not ready just yet to slap the Charles Barkley ‘guarantee’ for either driver making the Cup playoffs, but they are 100-plus points to the good, and that should only improve Sunday as both are tops in most points scored at Pocono since 2022.
Elliott owns top 10s in the last three races at the Long Pond, Pennsylvania track, including a 2022 trophy after the disqualifications of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
As for Reddick, he’s finished runner-up in two of the last three Pocono Cup races and has finished no worse than 11th at the track since 2021.
YELLOW FLAG [Drivers on the fringe for Pocono]
Fighting through back pain all last weekend in Mexico, Alex Bowman delivered one of the more clutch performances of the season with a top-five run at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. While only a slight change in his playoff probability, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver did improve it to 38.97% heading to Long Pond. He took the checkered flag in the first of two Pocono races run in 2021 and finished third in the most recent edition at the track.
Chris Buescher picked up another top 10 in Mexico, but similar to last year, good runs aren’t going to cut it for the No. 17 RFK Racing team. The Prosper, Texas native had an eight-point drop in his playoff probability down to 50.98%, and he’s been unimpressive at Pocono recently with no top 10s in the Gen 7 era.
RED FLAG [Drivers I’m concerned about heading to Pocono]
I would’ve told you after Kansas that Chase Briscoe (67.43% playoff probability) was bound for a deep playoff run, but now I just don’t know. Yes, a seventh-place result at Mexico is great. However, sitting 14th in points is kind of no man’s land right now, sandwiched between Bubba Wallace and Bowman. The last thing Briscoe needs on Sunday is another surprise winner and he hasn’t finished better than 15th in the last three Pocono races.
He’s shown the speed this season, but Carson Hocevar is continuing to make enemies on track while being his own worst enemy. Mistake after mistake in Mexico caused one of the biggest dips in playoff probability for the Spire Motorsports driver as it fell over 10 points to just 15.18% entering Pocono. Hocevar has just one Cup start in Long Pond (17th-place finish in 2024), but he’ll log extra laps this weekend in the Truck race, which could help on Sunday.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns from a week off for Friday’s MillerTech Battery 200 at Pocono Raceway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It’s been a busy summer for the teams, which raced six consecutive weekends between May 2 and June 7 – a string of races that featured five different winners and two first-time winners on the season (Rajah Caruth and Stewart Friesen).
The series championship leader, Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim, is the defending Pocono race winner. There’s absolutely no reason he won’t be the favorite this weekend. Heim led a dominating 55 of the 70 laps last year, including the final 34 to best Grant Enfinger to the line by nearly a second.
Chandler Smith is the only other full-time driver with a previous Pocono victory — taking the trophy in 2022.
With only five races remaining to set the 10-driver playoff field, there are six drivers eligible based on wins. Enfinger, Layne Riggs, Kaden Honeycutt, and reigning series champion Ty Majeski currently hold the four positions based on points only. Majeski is four points up on Jake Garcia, who sits 11th in points. Two-time series champion Ben Rhodes is 55 points below the cutline.
There are 12 drivers making their first Pocono start. The last six Pocono races have been won by six different drivers – four of them by full-time Truck Series competitors.
Practice is Friday at 12:35 p.m. ET followed immediately by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 1:40 p.m. ET — both sessions available on FS2. Christian Eckes, now an Xfinity Series rookie, started from pole position in this race last year.
The NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck series are in action this weekend for a tripleheader at Pocono Raceway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
NASCAR Cup Series
Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Seven sets for the race (six race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying).
Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 from Mexico City, won by Shane van Gisbergen, marked a historic milestone in Cup Series history: For the first time in more than a quarter-century, the sport’s top level staged a race (of any sort) beyond U.S. borders — and for the first time since 1958, an international event actually counted in the official championship standings.
It wasn’t NASCAR’s first trip to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, as the Xfinity Series held races there in the mid-to-late 2000s. But it was certainly the most significant. Never before had we seen a full field of Cup cars going wheel-to-wheel at the same venue that hosted the 1968 Olympics, zooming past the Foro Sol baseball stadium and concert stage along the way.
All of which got us thinking: Which global track(s) might make sense for the Cup Series to try next? As the sport looks to expand its worldwide footprint, there are plenty of options to consider, from iconic Formula One tracks to interesting street circuits and ovals abroad. So here are some ideas for NASCAR’s next international foray, choosing one from each of the seven continents — well, except Antarctica (until someone figures out how to build a high-banked oval out of glacier ice).
This one probably makes the most sense from a logistics standpoint. Montreal is not that far from the routine Cup Series stops scheduled in Loudon, New Hampshire, and Watkins Glen, New York — and much like the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve hosted Xfinity Series races during the late 2000s. (Winners ranged from Cup frontrunners like Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards to road-course ringers like Boris Said and Marcos Ambrose.) The track’s long straights would set up high-speed braking duels, and its many chicanes are prime places for bumping and banging. Surely the so-called “Wall of Champions” would see its share of crashed Cup cars as well.
One of the most iconic tracks on the Formula One calendar would also be a dream location for NASCAR, with its sweeping high-speed curves, long straights into heavy braking zones and dramatic elevation changes. Brazil boasts some of the most passionate and knowledgeable motorsports fans in the world — and they would no doubt embrace the thunderous presence of Cup cars on the same track that once showcased the great Ayrton Senna. The run from Turn 12 up through the front straight might even remind drivers of a flatter version of the Charlotte Roval, while the Senna Esses in Turns 1 and 2 would offer plenty of chances for drivers to make passes — whether through finesse or good, old-fashioned muscle.
Among all the F1 tracks — well, aside from COTA, an actual NASCAR track — Zandvoort might be the most NASCAR-like. One big reason why: It contains banked corners, something of a rarity in F1; the Hugenholtz corner (Turn 3) carries 19 degrees of bank, while the Arie Luyendykbocht (Turn 14) is set at 18 degrees. It also plays host to Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) races, featuring touring cars that share some traits with the Next Gen machines in Cup. Otherwise, the cool beachside setting and big Dutch fanbase (thanks to Max Verstappen) would create an unforgettable atmosphere.
A comparatively rare IndyCar and NASCAR-style oval outside the United States, Motegi’s 1.5-mile speedway (one of its two tracks on site) would be a fascinating experiment for high-level stock cars to return to. In addition to its regular CART dates in the 1990s, Motegi hosted an exhibition Cup race at the end of the 1998 season, which was won by longtime series staple Mike Skinner. Want stock-car bona fides? The ’98 broadcast compared Motegi to Darlington for its asymmetrical layout with different banking angles depending on the turn. And it was also the site of NASCAR history — the first time Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Jr. competed against each other on the big stage.
There’s no shortage of great road and street courses to choose from in Australia — at most of which van Gisbergen won during his time in Supercars, an added bonus. Arguably the most photogenic of them all is this beachfront stop in the Gold Coast region of Queensland, which old-school fans of CART from the 1990s and 2000s will surely remember fondly. Surfers Paradise is as narrow as you’d expect, with long straights mixed in among some chicanes and a few big hairpins, promising to test the street-racing skills of the field. The heavier Cup cars might struggle with the technical sections, but the promise of bumping, braking duels and sheer chaos under the palm trees would be worth the challenge.
The longtime home of the South African Grand Prix hasn’t hosted a Formula 1 race since 1993, though there have been recent attempts (if unsuccessful) to return Kyalami to a regular spot on the F1 calendar. For NASCAR, the track would offer a mix of just about everything you can ask of a road course — high-speed straightaways, elevation changes, technical corners — plus the added wrinkle of an altitude a bit over 5,000 feet above sea level, one of the highest ever alongside this past weekend at Mexico City. Add in South Africa’s proud racing history and the novelty of a new continent for the Cup Series to conquer, and Kyalami becomes a natural entry point for NASCAR racing in Africa.
Mired in a glaring winless stretch, Chase Elliott is still quietly riding a wave of steady momentum under the surface. With unmatched consistency and a playoff spot all but secured, No. 9 heads to Pocono needing just one spark to light the wick. If it comes, a beast may awaken.
Chase Elliott hasn’t won a race in more than a year, and he hasn’t come particularly close to doing it in 2025. The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion just isn’t finding the front of the field, leading in just a handful of races this year for a total of 95 laps and leaving the headline-grabbing trips to Victory Lane to names like Christopher Bell, William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.
But make no mistake: He’s lurking. Quietly. Relentlessly.
And if he turns up the wick before the playoffs hit, the rest of the field might not know what hit them.
Elliott is doing something almost no one else in the Cup Series can claim: finishing races no matter what, no matter how. He’s the only driver to place inside the top 20 in all 16 events this season, a feat of consistency he also managed last year and then some. He’s completed all but one lap. He hasn’t had a single meltdown, misstep, or mechanical disaster take him out of contention. His average finish — 11.19 — is third best in the series and on pace to be a career high.
Elliott and his longtime crew chief Alan Gustafson are just so in sync at this point that catastrophic days simply don’t exist for the No. 9 team anymore. But here’s where it gets complicated: The wins, along with the misses, have vanished.
He’s riding a 43-race winless streak dating back to April 2024, and we’re not seeing him routinely battling for wins and settling for top fives like earlier in his career; he has just four such finishes this year, with Mexico (third) being his first in two months. For all the precision and polish, Elliott’s recent results lack that killer edge we saw in the last generation of cars. He’s remarkably and consistently good in the Next Gen — but he hasn’t been great.
Still, he’s essentially a playoff lock. Sitting 146 points above the elimination line, his spot is nearly untouchable, though anything can happen over 10 races. But making the playoffs isn’t enough — not for a 2020 champion; not for a guy who made his home in the Championship 4 for three straight years, not that long ago. Elliott’s bar is higher, and the closer we get to the postseason, the more it feels like he’s building toward something.
And now? Pocono. A place where Elliott quietly actually does dominate in the Next Gen car — top 10 in every race since the debut, and more points earned there in it than anyone.
Even if it doesn’t happen Sunday, Elliott has three road courses and his home track, EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), left before the playoffs. If he capitalizes on even one, the narrative around the No. 9 flips from “steady but non-threatening” to “surging and dangerous.”
Just like nobody wanted to see Joey Logano sneak back into the Round of 8 last year after a penalty to the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slotted him in, none of Elliott’s peers want to see him and the No. 9 group clicking off wins again, because everybody knows they’re capable of doing so in bunches.
Everything points to it happening, however.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native has been progressively climbing the mountain while others flame out or feast on spurts of short-term momentum from wins before fading. He doesn’t beat himself on the race track, and it feels like he’s one moment away from reminding everyone of the dominance that takes place when this team is at full strength.
If the switch flips soon, it won’t be subtle. It’ll be a wake-up call (siren?) for the whole garage — loud, sudden … and felt all the way to Phoenix.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
2. Will anyone escape playoff no-man’s land at Pocono?
The playoff bubble is bursting with pressure, and Pocono might be the release point. For winless drivers like Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace, this weekend isn’t about survival or points racing — it’s about breaking through before the window slams shut.
In a NASCAR season that has felt, at times, a bit top-heavy with the superstars of the sport commanding dominion over Victory Lane, the real playoff chaos — as we saw in Mexico City — is going to come from the crowded underbelly of the standings.
With 10 races left before the field gets sliced to 16, the bubble isn’t just bubbling — it’s boiling. Three somewhat surprising names (Sunday’s Mexico winner Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry) have already locked in with thrilling wins. The window to claim one’s spot is shrinking, the pressure is rising and the next big shakeup may come from a winless driver, one of whom many expected to be locked up by now — or at least be in the running to defend his Regular Season Championship.
The no-man’s land of the 2025 NASCAR Playoffs picture is elbow-to-elbow, and the trick to getting out of the muck and the mire might come this weekend at Pocono.
Start with Tyler Reddick, who has been much maligned for erratic finishes … but is also having the quietest elite season no one seems to be noticing. On the surface, his five top 10s in 16 races are not flashy, but he’s second only to championship favorite William Byron in average running position, arguably a much better indicator than average race finish.
He’s clearly overdue, and he’s a potential sniper for the Pocono win with four straight top 10s and two runner-ups in the last three. His average finish there since 2022? Best in the field, at a pristine 3.3. If the march to re-enter the RSC conversation is going to happen, it will start at Pocono.
Chris Buescher is in a similar boat, expected in pre-season chatter to be a more viable title contender this year than he’s looked so far, but the gears are turning there. He’ll certainly be in the mix at the remaining road courses as well, but in terms of this weekend, the former “Tricky Triangle” winner is the only driver to finish top 10 at Pocono in each of the last two years, and he’s still out-pacing his typical stats this season, with his eight 2025 top 10s being the most he’s had through 16 races to date. He’s clinging to the final playoff spot by just 19 points, but there’s obviously something special about Pocono for him. It could all come together here.
Reddick’s teammate Bubba Wallace has looked like the better of the two at times this year, but — as he’s shown over the years — brings a boom-or-bust profile. He’s currently booming, however, following up three straight finishes of 33rd or worse with three straight of 12th or better and could stretch that into Pocono, where his three top 10s have all come in the past four races. If things go sideways late — and they often do — Wallace’s top-ranked pit crew per NASCAR Insights could be the difference-maker.
We just saw Alex Bowman, a former Pocono winner, snap a miserable run of bad luck at Mexico City in quite impressive fashion, and he has four top 10s in his last six Pocono starts. He’s above the elimination line, but in absolutely no way is his position safe yet. Especially if someone like Erik Jones, with the speed Toyota is likely to have, sneaks up and shocks everybody. Outside the top 20 in points but still within striking distance of the postseason — again, no-man’s land stretches far and wide — Jones has eight top 10s and five top fives in 13 starts at Pocono. And lately, he’s trending up, with four top 15s in the last six races.
If someone shocks the playoff picture this week, Jones has the resume to do it, but don’t be surprised if any of these guys whittle out their playoff spot in Pennsylvania, because they’re at a premium.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
3. Why Stenhouse ‘had every right’ to be mad at Hocevar
Steve Letarte and the crew discuss Carson Hocevar’s incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and why the No. 77 sophomore driver still has much to learn at the Cup Series level.
4. Joe Gibbs Racing the clear team to beat at Pocono
No organization has a better handle on the ‘Tricky Triangle’ than JGR’s fleet of Toyotas, and they could be in position to strike once again Sunday. The championship organization leads in all the categories below since the start of 2017. (Credit: Racing Insights)
Starts
52
Poles
5
Wins
7
Runner-ups
5
Top fives
23
Top 10s
35
Laps led
864
5. Catch the pack — news and notes from around the garage
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Bowman Gray Stadium is offering a little “Madhouse Education” for college students — for only $2.
This Saturday, June 21, the Market USA 100 will offer Fans’ Challenge money for the Brad’s Golf Cars Modified Series drivers, and college students can show their IDs at any ticket gate and get in to see the races for $2.
The Fans’ Challenge always adds an exciting challenge. The top-four time trial qualifiers will get a chance to take the Fans’ Challenge and win — or split — $6,000 by dropping to the rear and trying to get back into the top four when the checkered flag falls.
Two drivers who practically have doctorates in how to win at Bowman Gray Stadium are Burt Myers and Tim Brown, who come into the Market USA 100 tied atop the all-time wins list at 101 victories.
“I keep saying that it doesn’t matter if it’s 101, 102 (wins) — whatever,” Burt Myers said, “I’m just going to try and keep winning as many as I can.”
Added Brown: “I’m not really thinking about wins lists or any of that other stuff. Our team needs to get faster. Period.”
Burt Myers brother, Jason Myers, won the pole for the postponed Elite Underground Utility Twin 50s last week and was the only driver who took the Fans’ Challenge. His qualifying effort will stand for the Market USA 100, and he’ll get a chance to make his decision final or change his mind Saturday.
“My mother told me I should keep the pole, and that kind of made my decision to take the Fans’ Challenge,” Jason Myers chuckled.
Gates open at 6 p.m. ET Saturday night with racing action to start at 8 p.m. ET. Fans can get tickets online at www.bowmangrayracing.com. Tickets are $12 for adults and $2 for college students and kids ages 6 to 11.
NASCAR Hall of Famer and JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his debut as crew chief for the team’s No. 88 Chevrolet and driver Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway, JR Motorsports confirmed Wednesday on its X account.
Veteran Mardy Lindley is typically atop the pit box calling the shots for Zilisch. However, the No. 88 Chevrolet had two lug nuts left unsecured after finishing second in the May 31 race at Nashville Superspeedway, resulting in a $10,000 fine and one-race suspension for Lindley. NASCAR officials indicated that suspension was deferred one race, permitting Lindley to perform his normal duties at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City and sidelining him for Pocono.
A two-time Xfinity Series champion and 24-time series winner behind the wheel, Earnhardt has never called a race as crew chief in any of NASCAR’s three national series and saw this weekend’s circumstances as the right opportunity to team with Zilisch. Now broadcasting for Prime Video and TNT Sports’ Cup Series television coverage, Earnhardt made at least one Xfinity Series start per year from 2001-2024. Although he has no plans to step behind the wheel this season, Earnhardt will maintain his streak of appearances in a competitive role.
Zilisch, the 18-year-old rookie, will make his first appearance at the “Tricky Triangle” on Saturday. The Mooresville, North Carolina native won at Circuit of The Americas in March to secure his spot in the 2025 Xfinity Series Playoffs, collecting one win, four top fives and six top 10s through 14 starts this season. Zilisch missed the May 3 race at Texas Motor Speedway due to a lingering back injury after a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. Kyle Larson substituted for Zilisch and scored the victory with Lindley as crew chief.
Earnhardt won two NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono, sweeping the track’s two events in 2014, totaling 11 top fives and 15 top 10s across 35 Cup starts at the 2.5-mile triangular track.
Zilisch enters the weekend fifth in the regular-season standings with a three-race streak of top-five finishes intact, placing second at both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville before finishing fifth in Mexico City.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway for the Great American Getaway 400 presented by VisitPA.com on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Prime Video will also air Cup Series qualifying at 1:45 p.m. ET on Saturday.
