“Alan [Gustafson] Is Just a Big a Problem”- Rick Hendrick’s Employee Under Fans Scrutiny in Chase Elliott-Kyle Larson Saga

It’s been almost a week since the Kansas Speedway race and the bickering between Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. However, the news is far from simmering down and is still making the rounds as a headline in the NASCAR community. Since the occurrence of the incident, the No. 9 Chevrolet driver has been subjected to relentless criticism from both NASCAR veterans and enthusiasts.

Nonetheless, as the incident continues, the NASCAR community seems to throw deeper insights into the incident, and it seems that it is not Chase Elliott who is to blame for the incident but his crew chief Alan Gustafson. 

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The 2023 Cup Series season has undoubtedly been unwavering for the 2020 Cup Series champion. The ongoing season has been a medley of misfortunes for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. As if those were not enough, the No. 9 found himself inexorable with a fresh set of controversies after the playoff race at Kansas. 

The incident occurred while exiting the pit before the final overtime of the race. Larson had confounded himself between Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott, who were also exiting after a pit stop, However, in order to avoid Keselowski, Larson bumped into the rear of Chase Elliott’s car. The incident did not sit well with Elliott, as he tried to confront Kyle Larson about the incident.

Owing to this, fans and NASCAR insiders have equally lashed out at Elliott for his nonchalant demeanor, but it seems that the whole issue could have been averted had Elliott’s crew chief given his driver a forewarning about the crunch in space on the pit lane.  

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Furthermore, this was not the first time that Gustafson could have prevented the occurrence of an on-track incident. To draw accounts from the race at Watkins Glen, earlier in the season, that crushed Elliott’s hope of making it to the playoffs. The crew chief failed to call Elliott back to the pit stop to refuel his car, even after being notified about it by the driver.

As a result, the car eventually came to a halt at the bus stop of the track, before being towed away thus destroying the hopes of playoffs.

Enraged fans slam Alan Gustafson for his judgment

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In lieu of the repetition of these incidents, enraged fans took to Reddit, and slammed Gustafson for his judgment.

A fan wrote, “I read the other thread on this topic as well and this entire situation could’ve immediately been put to rest if Alan Gustafson would have told Chase immediately what happened between the 5 and 6. IMO, he is the one who threw gas on this fire. Chase asked him and he said he didn’t know. Couldve easily watched the replay and told him. Alan is just a big a problem in this equation as Chase.”

Wrote another, “Alan always blames the other guy, Chase needs an actual leader on the box.”

Others also wrote: 

“Fr. Alan at times is like the devil on the shoulder and throws gas on the fire. Need a guy to cool him down. Like I’m fine with Chase being pissed about Larson running into him repeatedly. Stand up for yourself but in this particular instance is when the crew chief needs to calm him down and tell him it wasn’t really Larson’s fault.”

“This seems to be a pattern with Chase’s crew, mainly Alan and Eddie. Whenever Chase is involved in something, they egg him on and only worsen the situation instead of diffusing it. Prime example was the Championship race last year where Chase turned himself across Ross’s bumper on the restart, and both Alan and Eddie were egging Chase on to retaliate (even going as far as specifically calling out where Ross was on the track).”

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With that being said, it is surely an unfortunate turn of events, for Chase Elliott. It will be interesting to see how the incident takes a turn from henceforth. Will Elliott and Larson be able to bury the hatchet or will it brew to something bigger?