“He loves to help and give advice”: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR prodigy reveals his involvement as a mentor

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his capacity as JR Motorsports co-owner, likes to give help and advice to his drivers, including youngster Connor Zilisch. Zilisch addressed this and other topics in an interview with Ryan Flores in Corey LaJoie's podcast Stacking Pennies on March 5.

Connor Zilisch is an 18-year-old sensation shaking the world of NASCAR in the Xfinity Series with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team: JRM. He's also a development driver in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing. He currently sits at 16th place in the Xfinity championship with 61 points and one win, last Saturday (March 1) at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas.

Flores asked Zilisch about Dale Earnhardt Jr. giving him tips and tricks on speedway racing, to which the young driver answered:

"He loves giving advice on speedway racing especially; he sat us all down at Daytona, the day of the race, and was like 'hey guys, this is what you gotta do, I know your teammates but... He did give some examples of him back in the day. He loves to help and give advice and that's one of the coolest parts about him."

After his win at COTA on Saturday, Zilisch also ran the Cup Series on Sunday and was 2nd favorite to win such a race, with +600 (via SportsLine), only behind New Zealand road course expert, Shane van Gisbergen. He ended up getting tangled with teammate Daniel Suarez in turn 20 of lap 50 and had a DNF after a promising start.

"I’ve had so much fun preparing for this event. That second stage, driving from outside the Top 30 to 14th was a lot of fun. I was passing a lot of guys that I used to watch on TV growing up," the young driver said exiting the infield care center to NBC Sports.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. was nicknamed The Pied Piper for his superspeedway talent

If you are going to listen to anyone about superspeedway tips and tricks, there are few better than Dale Earnhardt Jr. With two wins at The Great American Race and four consecutive wins at Talladega Superspeedway, he is widely regarded as an authority on such contests and was even nicknamed The Pied Piper because of this.

The most important of those six wins, was probably Daytona 2014, which he entered with a 55-race winless streak. After starting P9 and a 6-hour rain delay, he battled Denny Hamlin for the chequered flag and came out victorious. Post the race, Earnhardt Jr. said (via Hendrick Motorsports):

"That was a big deal. That was with Steve Letarte, and it was his first Daytona 500 win. Just being able to celebrate that was incredible.”

Next up for Zilisch, Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports is the Phoenix Raceway on Saturday (March 8).