"Let's not mess it up": Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s clear message to crew chief ahead of probable final race in NASCAR

This weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would run, what could be, his final race in NASCAR. Ever since his retirement as a full-timer, Junior has run one-off yearly races for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series.

However, this year's race at Bristol could be his last. The NASCAR Hall of Famer admitted on his podcast recently that the race at Bristol could be his final start in the Xfinity Series, something he's "pretty sure" of.

But regardless of that, his preparations for the race are as routine as usual. Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief for Bristol, Andrew Overstreet opened up on that recently on the DJD Reloaded.

The crew chief recalled his and Earnhardt's recent sim session on Monday, where the former Hendrick driver was "so smooth" lap after lap. Overstreet claimed that while some drivers might go for superior lap times, Dale Earnhardt Jr. focused on what he could extract out of his racecar for Bristol and "paced himself."

"He was getting as fast as the other guys but he was focusing on what you need to do here at Bristol to get good. And we made some changes to get the car better and at the end of it Dale said, 'Well if we can't change in practice, I don't want it to mess me up. I get one shot a year. So I know that the car was awesome last year so let's not mess it up. Let's go race.'" [5:01]

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s racecar won't catch on fire this year as per Andrew Overstreet

In the Bristol Xfinity race last year, it seemed that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would pull of a memorable win. The JR Motorsports driver found himself in the lead past the halfway point in laps, led 47 laps, and then remained in the top 5 as the race neared it's end.

However, an unexpected issue, a fire inside his racecar, forced Dale Earnhardt Jr. to come down to the pit road, and his race, which could've had a fairytale ending, ended in a 30th place finish.

For this year's race, his crew chief revealed that the goal is going to be not very different from what they were trying to achieve last year. The only change, as Overstreet revealed, was that his racecar wouldn't catch on fire this time around.

"It's no different. We just want to run all the laps and I told Dale, 'Just let us put you in position to be up front so we can compete at the end. Connor did a good job giving Dale pit stop 1, so that's going to get us pit road. We got Chase Elliott's Cup crew for pit stops this week. And a lot of it, we got a lot of things lined up. We just have to be aggressive on strategy, get track position like last year, and we've already made sure the car is not going to catch on fire like it did last year, so fans can be assured," Overstreet said on the DJD Reloaded podcast. [6:10]

The crew chief claimed that the fire issue was taken care of ahead of Homestead last season, the race where Junior finished inside the top 5.

He emphasized that the whole #88 team is excited for Bristol while remaining focused and not feeling the stress of having Dale Earnhardt Jr. inside the racecar, in what could be, his final race in NASCAR.