Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to stark contrast between being NASCAR owner, competing as crew chief

It’s been a couple weeks now since Dale Earnhardt Jr. served as crew chief for Connor Zilisch in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in a winning effort. He’s had a chance to process the experience and the opportunity.

And in doing so, he’s come away raving about it. But it’s very different than being a driver, he said.

“Yeah, you’re not in control. You’re not driving a car,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “I think you’re more nervous as a driver. You’re more nervous as a driver because you are the quarterback, right? The owner, the crew chief, you’re more like the tight end or a receiver. There’s other players on the field and there’s other things going on. But the quarterback’s kind of got the ball in his hands at all times.

“As an owner, you don’t offer nothing to the weekend. You are there. And it’s like, it’s awesome, don’t get me wrong, but damn man, there’s no sense of competition. Right? You’re not really part of what’s happening.”

You can tell by listening to Dale Earnhardt Jr. that he thoroughly enjoyed serving as a crew chief. It seems unlikely that’ll be the last time he does it, though there are practical hurdles as the owner of JR Motorsports.

If nothing else, though, the experience served to highlight a few things for him. He explained.

“I learned a few things: that I need to be more visible on the radio,” Earnhardt said. “I’ve always not done that because I didn’t want the other (drivers); you can’t do it for all four all the time. And I didn’t want to be like, ‘Oh, he loves Carson. Carson raced his late models, he’s going to take care of him and not do what he needs to, not do the same for the other guys.’ I didn’t want anybody to get twisted, so I would always be kind of hands off. This weekend really helped me.”

But beyond just the team element of things, Dale Earnhardt Jr. felt the ordeal added to his professional capabilities, too. Not just as an owner or as a crew chief, but as a broadcaster.

“This weekend was so helpful for me in so many ways beyond just crew chiefing an Xfinity car and understanding what that looks like,” he said. “I gained confidence to go into the booth on Sunday and actually join Steve (Letarte) a little on talking strategy. Usually whenever we get into a pit cycle or strategy conversation, I step back. That’s Steve. That’s his job, that’s what he’s there for.

“But I felt like, man, I can confidently add a little or agree with him or bolster his point of view. And that was helpful. … Like it really did give me a little bit of confidence to sort of help support Steve. I kind of understand. I always understand, because Steve’s so good at describing what we’re about to see, he’s way ahead of it. But I usually never got involved in that conversation.”

There was one other takeaway that Dale Earnhardt Jr. had from the experience. He circled back around to it.

“The other thing that it helped me with was being more communicative on the radio, like speaking, telling you guys what I see and think,” Earnhardt told his driver, Zilisch.