Dale Jr. sends honest ‘be better’ message to | Sports News

JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has called on NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch to be a “better teammate” after being left disappointed with his behavior in Saturday’s Focused Health 250.

Zilisch won his second Xfinity Series race of his career at the Circuit of the Americas, but Earnhardt Jr. was annoyed with the way he managed it.

Zilisch, 18, is tipped to be the next NASCAR star after winning on his Xfinity Series debut and being given his first Cup Series outing on Sunday. Zilisch signed as a development driver for Trackhouse Racing, which allows him to compete in select Cup Series races, though he’s part of the JR Motorsports roster for Xfinity races.

JR Motorsports has a history of having talented drivers on the same roster, and it appears as though Zilisch will follow that trend after battling with Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier on Saturday.

“That battle with Carson [Kvapil] made me nauseous. Gonna be a fun but very stressful year,” Earnhardt Jr. said of the Zlisch-Kvapil battle after the Focused Health 250.

Earnhardt Jr. was keen to move away from a tense environment which is sometimes felt inside the JR Motorsports garage, and he and co-owner, Kelly Earnhardt, made improving teamwork a major factor in plans ahead of the 2025 season. That was ignored by Zilisch on Saturday, as he prioritized himself when working through the pack.

Zilisch earned pole for the race and won Stage 1, but disaster struck towards the end of Stage 2 after entering the pit lane while a caution was on the track. Zilisch received a penalty and was forced to restart in 32nd place, but was determined to regain his lead and ended up pushing, shoving, and spinning rival drivers.

This approach impacted his own teammates, as Allgaier became caught up and Kvapil was wrecked after Zilisch battled for his position. Zilisch incredibly won the race, but Kvapil finished 23rd, and Allgaier in 29th.

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“We will have to sit down and talk about it to see what his mindset was in that moment. I don’t know if I wasn’t there that he was making the corner to be honest,” Allgaier said after the race, hinting that he was upset without making any harsh statements.

Earnhardt Jr. failed to hold back when reflecting on the race, and used his ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast to offer his honest thoughts. “He’s (Zilisch) young. He’s navigating the missteps and things. He’s a talented kid going to have a bright future and, you know, learning how to be a better teammate.

“That’s just part of it. He’s going to have teammates all his life. I’ve always said this too, if you have four, in this case, five cars that are very good cars and five very capable race car drivers they’re going to hit. They’re going to hit. But we talk about it.

“We have a kickoff luncheon for our whole company at the beginning of every year. And my main message to everyone was let’s try to do a better job this year of being good teammates. And I’m going to be paying attention to that. “We’ve had some great driver lineups here in the past. But we haven’t always been the best of teammates, and we’re very selfish a lot of times.”

Zilisch did show humility after winning the race, and offered an apology after vowing to cut out needless mistakes. “I’m honestly more frustrated with myself than I am happy,” Zilisch said. “I made way too many mistakes. That made it way harder on myself.

“There are so many things I could say about myself that I could have done better. I don’t know how we came back and won the race. It’s just a testament to how fast our car was but I definitely have a lot to clean up moving forward.”