“He felt pretty bad!” Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives Conor Zilisch a stern advises over dramatic COTA win

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his feeling about the duel between Carson Kvapil and Conor Zilisch at COTA.

“He felt pretty bad!” Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives Conor Zilisch a stern advises over dramatic COTA win

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Conor Zilisch (Via @ConnorZilisch/X)

The NASCAR race weekend at the Circuit of The Americas was a special day for Conor Zilisch as he secured his maiden Xfinity race win with JR Motorsports as a full-time racer and also made his Cup debut. His win though came under controversial circumstances, as he raced a little too aggressively against his rivals, including teammate Carson Kvapil.

The battles between Carson Kvapil and Conor Zilisch lasted multiple laps towards the end, with both of them not holding back. JRM co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. via his podcast shared his feelings about the duel and revealed that he asked the youngster to clean up racing with his teammate and learn about how to race them better.

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I talked to Connor after the race and I said, ‘I trust you’ll clean that up.’ He felt pretty bad about how that all went down. We had the beer toast here the other day — of course he did not have beer. He’s young, navigating the missteps. … He’s a talented kid, gonna have a bright future and learning how to be a better teammate.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download.

He further pointed out that Zilisch needs to learn how cope with teammates as he is going work with them his whole life as one day he would need his teammates to back him, and in order for that he has to help them back. Zilisch also highlighted that working well together during the race will also inspire the crews to support each other more.

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That’s just part of it. He’s gonna have teammates all his life. … You learn over the course of your career to be a good teammate and help your teammates when you can because that’s gonna come around to help you. Their crew chiefs see it, their crew chiefs then want to help you.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits the teammate battles can’t be avoided

In the same podcast, Junior admitted that having the battles on the track between his JRM drivers are inevitable. He admitted that since his cars are faster than most of the garage and the drivers are capable of winning every race, is the reason for the inevitability.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via NASCAR.com)

There will be a race somewhere else where it’ll be another teammate. And Connor will be on the bad end of something going down on the racetrack. That conversation is never ending. … If you got five good cars and five very capable racecar drivers, they’re gonna hit. They’re gonna run up front and they’re gonna have to battle each other for positions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

The comments from the NASCAR Hall of Famer shows he expects his drivers to clash on the regular and is ready to step up when it required. It would be interesting to see how the Carson Kvapil and Conor Zilisch duel is going to playout.