Dear Chase Elliott Fans: Stop Trying to Fire Alan Gustafson

Alan Gustafson might just have the hardest job in the NASCAR Cup Series garage.

As the shot-caller for Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver, and the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports (the winningest organization in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series), the expectations are through-the-roof from all angles.

That means when things don’t go 100% perfectly (honestly, they don’t even have to go WRONG, per say) the tens of thousands of fans rooting for Chase Elliott break out the pitchforks and torches and take to social media to demand that Gustafson be fired.

…and that’s just silly – a point that Gustafson proved in Sunday’s Cook Out 400.

When the checkered flag was displayed at Martinsville on Sunday, Chase Elliott got to pull his No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into Victory Lane, his second NASCAR Cup Series victory at the half-mile paperclip.

For the Hendrick Motorsports driver, the win was rather unexpected, considering Elliott had been running at the back-half of the top-10 all day, and didn’t have the pace comparable to race dominator Denny Hamlin, who led nearly three-quarters of the event.

So, how did Elliott end up winning the race? Alan Gustafson.

Gustafson, a 20-year veteran crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, decided that he was going to split the final stage into thirds – hoping that hitting pit road twice would allow the No. 9 to gain track position on new tires. Things didn’t technically go to plan, but by short pitting against those only making one stop, Elliott was able to jump to the race lead and have a caution fall at Lap 312.

When everybody (except for Ross Chastain) pitted under the caution, Elliott had gained ton of track position and managed to snag the lead on the restart and hold Hamlin at bay.

“Super happy that it paid off, we were just kind of trapped in like tenth spot,” Gustafson told FOX Sports post-race. “It was really hard to pass, so we needed to do something different. Mathematically, it was going to be close for us to split that run or two-stop it; I just felt like it was worth a shot. When we pitted early, I think it brought a lot of guys down. When they pitted early, it put us in a better position. Obviously, the caution was great; it gave us track position; the rest is history.”

The victory is the first points-paying win of 2026 for Elliott, who also won the pre-season exhibition event at Bowman Gray Stadium. In the last 26 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series events, Hendrick Motorsports has only won five times – three times with Chase Elliott, and twice with William Byron.

“It’s a great call. Glad he picked up on that, saw that. I don’t think anybody else did,” Elliott said in his post-race winner’s press conference. “Goes to show that he’s pretty good at what he does, which I try to tell y’all that all the time, but he does a pretty good job. I’m happy to work with him. Appreciate his effort, hanging in there, to our whole team for doing that, too.”

Despite what social media will tell you when Elliott has an imperfect race, Gustafson is no slouch as a crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The Ormond Beach, Florida-native collected his 42nd career victory as a crew chief on Sunday, a staggering 22 of which have come with Elliott, as well as the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship. But, in his two-plus decade tenure with Hendrick Motorsports, Gustafson has also gotten to work with extremely successful drivers like Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin.

Yet, after all those accolades and a longevity on the pit box that very few people have accomplished in the history of the sport – with more than 750 NASCAR Cup Series starts as a crew chief – Chase Elliott still feels like he needs to defend his crew chief.

“The more you do this, I think the more you keep an eye internally, more than you do externally,” Elliott added. “For us, I think, yeah, we’re just super honest with each other, what we need to do, where our deficiencies are, where the areas are that we’re good at. I think as time as hone on, we’ve done nothing but just get better at being able to sort out our weaknesses in our own meetings, doing what we need to do to get the job down. It’s a very, very straightforward approach.”

One thing is certain, though, and that’s Alan Gustafson isn’t getting replaced. The 51-year-old crew chief has the full support of Hendrick Motorsports executives Rick Hendrick (Owner and CEO) and Jeff Gordon (Vice Chairman) and regardless of the chatter on social media (which with no social media, Gustafson says he doesn’t even see) his job is safe, as it should be.

“I get to say this because Alan [Gustafson] was my crew chief; I love the work and effort he puts in, how smart he is, the team he builds. Nobody is a tougher critic than he is of the team and their performance,” said Gordon. “[…] Whether it was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Chase Elliott, whoever is the popular driver in the series, there’s a lot of critics that want to sit on the sidelines and evaluate it.”

“You can’t let it tear you apart. You've got to keep strong on the inside and believe in yourself and believe in your team, all the things you’re doing. That’s what Alan and Chase fall back on.”