Here’s what’s happening this week Inside The Garage:
Alan Gustafson doesn’t need social media for his crew chief job, so he doesn’t spend time scrolling and looking at what people say about him.
He knows he’s the crew chief for the sport’s most popular driver. And considering that the 2020 Cup champion had only three wins from 2023-25, Gustafson knows his fans wouldn’t be happy.
Gustafson has worked as a Hendrick Motorsports crew chief for 22 seasons, starting in 2005 with Kyle Busch. He has confidence in what he can do and has the experience to know he must change with the times.
He showed what he can do Sunday as he made a strategic call to pit earlier than most in the final stage of the Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. The strategy worked as they got the benefit of a timely caution (they feel they would have been good either way), giving Chase Elliott the track position he needed to win.
“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,” said Hendrick Vice Chairman and four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon during the winners’ post-race news conference.
Alan Gustafson (R) made a gutsy call at Martinsville that paid off with a Chase Elliott (L) win.
[NASCAR TAKEAWAYS: Chase Elliott Outduels Denny Hamlin at Martinsville]
“You can’t let that tear you aside. You bought to maintain sturdy on the within and imagine in your self and imagine in your staff, all of the stuff you’re doing. That is what Alan and Chase fall again on.”
Gordon is aware of one thing about Gustafson, who was his crew chief from 2011-15. If Gordon felt a change was warranted, Hendrick Motorsports would have made one.
And it wouldn’t be unprecedented to see an Elliott-Gustafson divorce.
Elliott, driver of the No. 9 automobile, and Alan Gustafson have the longest driver-crew chief pairing within the Cup storage. And at 11 years, it’s not even shut to a different relationship. Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe are subsequent as they work their seventh season collectively.
“Alan was my crew chief,” Gordon stated. “I really like the work and energy he places in, how good he’s, the staff he builds. No one is a harder critic than he’s of the staff and their efficiency.”
That’s why the Elliott-Gustafson relationship works. They’re each comparatively powerful critics. They each wish to go concerning the enterprise of getting their staff higher with as little sideshow as doable.
The Elliott-Gustafson relationship nonetheless works for the Hendrick pair.
Once I was visiting Hendrick Motorsports on Wednesday shortly after lunchtime, there was Gustafson within the staff’s exercise room, doing his exercise. He didn’t seem harassed that the staff had not received but this 12 months nor that Hendrick Motorsports as a complete hadn’t received.
He’s been by the ups and downs. And so has Elliott.
“The extra you do that, I believe the extra you retain a watch internally greater than you do externally,” Elliott stated through the postrace information convention. “For us, we’re simply tremendous sincere with one another, what we have to do, the place our deficiencies are, the place the areas are that we’re good at, no matter.
“As time has gone on, we have finished nothing however simply get higher at with the ability to form of type out our weaknesses in our personal conferences, doing what we have to do to get the job finished. It’s a very, very simple method.”
Some Elliott followers received’t wish to hear that. They’ll wish to hear that Elliott thinks he wants a change in crew chief. And if he actually did desire a change, there’s additionally little question he may get one.
Then there are days like Sunday. At Martinsville, Gustafson talked together with his engineers and made a name that might probably win the race utilizing a special technique than many of the different groups.
“You possibly can’t sit in your palms and run tenth. You bought to do one thing, proper?” Gustafson stated in his postrace information convention. “I believe that was the very best shot.”
His crew chief’s technique helped Chase Elliott get into Victory Lane at Martinsville.
Typically when he takes these photographs, whether or not throughout a race or the automobile setup, they don’t work. And that’s when followers get annoyed.
“[He] made a terrific name,” Elliott stated. “Glad he picked up on that, noticed that. I do not suppose anyone else did.
“[It] goes to point out that he is fairly good at what he does, which I attempt to inform y’all that on a regular basis. However he does a fairly good job. I am completely happy to work with him. Recognize his effort, hanging in there, to our entire staff for doing that, too. I respect that out of all of them.”
And there’s no plan to vary.
“I get pleasure from working with him,” Elliott stated. “I genuinely really feel that approach. I hope he feels the identical approach about me. I give him all I bought each week, even when it is not fairly.
“I believe due to that, it really works. It is easy. We simply present up and go to work, man. We attempt to do the very best we will to place the very best end result on the market for everyone concerned.”
Graham Rahal Exhibits He’s Obtained It, Too
Chase Elliott’s crew chief Alan Gustafson wasn’t the one one that has had his share of criticism about needing to have a superb race weekend. On the INDYCAR facet, Graham Rahal placed third at Barber (Ala.) Motorsports Park.
It was his first podium since Might 2023. The veteran driver of the No. 15 automobile and son of staff co-owner Bobby Rahal, now has 34 podiums in 313 profession begins.
“There’s sufficient bull—- on the market that I bought to take care of,” Rahal stated in his postrace information convention. “It is good [to perform]. I am going to nonetheless hear it. … There’s a complete lot of dumb asses out on this world proper now. Obtained to dwell with it.”
This wasn’t a fluke. Rahal began third and completed third. He sits twelfth within the standings among the many 25 drivers.
“[The podium] is a good reward for the blokes and gals,” Rahal stated. “All people has labored so onerous to be again right here.”
Graham Rahal (R) completed on the rostrum at Barber.
The one eye-opening a part of his race is that, whereas Rahal shined, his two teammates struggled. Granted, they’ve a lot much less expertise with Louis Foster in his second INDYCAR season and Mick Schumacher in his first.
“They copied my setup as we speak,” Rahal stated. “The final two days they have been barely totally different. Mick and I are at all times about the identical, which is why we have been each good at Phoenix. We each have been very persistently like that.
“Louis tends to go off down just a little little bit of a special tangent. At this time they began the day in the very same automobile. All of us bought to sit down down and attempt to perceive. I believe Louis ran a special gear technique, however that was form of small.”
What isn’t a small distinction? Rahal is listed at 185 kilos within the INDYCAR media information, 13 kilos heavier than Foster and 31 kilos heavier than Schumacher.
“I am a a lot heavier driver than they’re,” Rahal stated. “That does transfer the middle of gravity, that strikes the burden distribution and stuff. They tried to get fairly shut.
“All of us want to return and attempt to perceive the place the variances could also be.”
In The Information
— Denny Hamlin indicated {that a} contract extension for No. 45 driver Tyler Reddick can be completed quickly to maintain Reddick at 23XI Racing. Reddick received the common season in 2024, didn’t win in 2025 however then won four of the first six races of 2026. Hamlin: “He can be [staying here]. Tyler’s a kind of guys that was essential for us to get our palms on him very early. … Definitely, final 12 months was not nice, however like when his not nice years are nonetheless within the prime 10, these are the elite drivers.”
Denny Hamlin (R) needs to lock up Tyler Reddick (L) with a contract extension at 23XI Racing.
— NASCAR has introduced the nominees for the 2027 NASCAR Corridor of Fame class. There are 4 new nominees, yet another than typical. Sometimes, there are three to interchange the three inductees however Bob Welborn, a star in NASCAR’s convertible sequence in NASCAR’s starting years, was dropped off the Pioneer Poll. There are 10 nominees within the Trendy Period poll, with two getting in and 5 nominees from the Pioneer poll with one getting in. FOX analyst and 60-time race winner Kevin Harvick is on the Modern Era ballot in his first year of eligibility. Engine builder Ernie Elliott and West Collection star Ray Elder additionally have been added to the Trendy Period poll. Crew chief Harry Hyde moved from the Trendy Period to Pioneer after being on the poll for 10 years with out getting voted in. Herb Nab, a crew chief with 92 victories, was additionally added to the Pioneer poll. Voting is Might 19.
— Musician Darius Rucker has joined Legacy Motor Membership as an investor. The information launch said: “As an investor, Rucker will collaborate with the group on choose initiatives that bridge sports activities, music and fan engagement, whereas supporting the Membership’s continued enterprise and model growth.”
— Indianapolis Motor Speedway introduced its Carb Day live performance for the Friday earlier than the Indianapolis 500. Counting Crows will headline, with Switchfoot opening the present.
Below The Radar
Eleventh isn’t at all times a terrific end result. However for 2 drivers this previous NASCAR weekend at Martinsville, it was huge because it confirmed continued relative power.
Shane van Gisbergen was a stable eleventh within the Cup race at Martinsville because the three-time Supercars champion continues to regulate to the ovals. The Trackhouse driver is 14th within the Cup standings.
Within the O’Reilly Series, Parker Retzlaff was eleventh. The Viking Motorsports driver, who has proven glimpses of expertise however not the consistency (which could possibly be attributed to him, the groups he drove for or just a little little bit of each) is ninth within the O’Reilly standings.
They Mentioned What?
Alex Palou, after incomes his thirteenth profession pole, wasn’t certain if that quantity was a superb factor or if he needs to be superstitious about it. You’d suppose the four-time champion wouldn’t get superstitious however the Chip Ganassi Racing driver does.
“There’s plenty of superstitions,” he stated in his pole-winning information convention. “I may get superstitious about this [red plastic] cup. These glasses? I modified the glasses. I have been with the identical sun shades for 5 years. I modified them this 12 months. … I did not know if it was sun shades [that make a difference].”
Alex Palou received for the second straight 12 months at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday.
[PALOU’S REPEAT: 4 Takeaways From Alex Palou’s Victory at Barber]
They Mentioned It
“We completed P2; we should not be that annoyed. However when you find yourself up towards a automobile that is been probably the most aggressive and finest automobile in INDYCAR for the previous a few years, to have an opportunity to beat him truthful and sq., that hurts.” — Arrow McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard after ending second to Alex Palou at Barber.
In Inside The Storage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the motorsports world the best way solely he can.
[SPEED: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Divulges Biggest Regret of Illustrious Racing Career]
