Chase Elliott had put himself in a position to take a shot at the leaders if a restart happened, but he ran out of fuel first. When Elliott came to a stop on the track at Watkins Glen, he asked what happened, and his crew chief gave the NASCAR driver a bleak answer. “Bad information.”
Alan Gustafson has made some great calls in his career, and also some highly questionable ones. As Elliott came to a halt on the track, it was clear the driver was frustrated. But he also looked dejected. Defeated, as the broadcast looked at his onboard camera. His teammate raced to victory 45 laps later.
After the race, Gustafson told Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports that he wasn’t going to discuss the matter.
“That’s internal stuff,” Gustafson said. “I’m not going to go over our internal struggles in the media, and I’m certainly not going to educate everybody else on the problem.”
Since Chase Elliott came back from injury, it doesn’t feel like he or his team ever made any big moves. They didn’t take much of a chance in races. Some of that is just trying to trust your driver. Chase Elliott is a champion, let him race how he feels comfortable.
However, it became clear about a month ago, that a win was going to be needed. Either mistakes or just lack of speed have cost this team on multiple occasions this season.
“To win, you have to have very little margin,” the crew chief continued. “That’s what winning is — you’re going to make sure you exploit everything to the highest percentile possible.
“Any time you’re trying to push, you’re cutting margins, That gets riskier and riskier.”
Now, everything is left up to Daytona for Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson.
Chase Elliott has rocky history at Daytona
During his career in the Cup Series, Chase Elliott has gotten it done on all types of tracks. He has won on short tracks, intermediate tracks, superspeedways, and road courses. However, Daytona is not his best track.
During his career, Elliott has finished P2 twice at Daytona. August 2020 and February 2021. He’s won the pole at the track on three occasions, but that hasn’t really translated to much other than some top-5 finishes and some “almost had it” type runs.
Elliott compared relying on Daytona to betting on slots in Las Vegas and he isn’t wrong. You can run well all day and get wrecked on the second to last lap coming to the white and your day is over. You can also be taken out on the first lap of the race. Nothing is guaranteed.
So, Chase Elliott will walk into NASCAR’s slot machine, Daytona International Speedway, and hope that he hits the jackpot, a checkered flag and a ticket to the playoffs.
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