Chase Elliott breaks silence on demands for his crew chief Alan Gutsafan’s firing after the Watkins Glen fuel drama
Chase Elliott is close to missing his first Cup career playoffs.
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Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson (Via IMAGO)
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has addressed the backlash he and his crew chief got over the last week over the fuel drama at Watkins Glen. The No:9 Chevy Camaro ZL1’s fuel ran out, and the driver was forced to make a sudden stop, which also brought in the only caution of the race. It cost the 2021 Cup champion another shot at a win and a playoff spot.
The racing community was surprised over such an elementary mistake coming from an elite team like HMS. Some fans quickly called for the team’s experienced crew chief, Alan Gustafson’s exit from Elliott’s team. The championship-winning crew chief saw fans rallying against him on social media.
Eliott, while talking about the issue and the social media backlash, pointed out that neither he nor his crew is concerned about it and said he trusts the decision-making of Gustafson. He went on to say that he doesn’t care what anyone says about his crew chief as he knows the individual better than anyone since they work together all the time.
“That’s not something he and I worry about. He didn’t worry about social media, and I don’t either. We have a lot of trust in one another and the job that we do. I think a lot of him, I think he is a great dude, a great crew chief. I don’t really care what anybody says about that, I work with him every week, and no one else does,” Chase Elliott told Fox Sports.
“It’s kind of unfair for anybody to feel like they have a good hold on what our team sees. What we talk about every week and the things that we go to work on together. And I’m really proud of that. We have been working together for about eight years now, so I am not worried about him,” Elliott added.
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Chase Elliott explains what went wrong at Glen
Elliott pointed out that he was in an unfortunate situation over an error and bad timing. He added that neither the tracks nor its characters should be blamed for the incident and said that it wasn’t an obvious mistake as many fans see it.
“I don’t really think it was anything of a trick or anything like that. It was just an unfortunate error that was bad timing more than anything. But it wasn’t as obvious as I would say though, average watcher would think it was,” Elliott said.
Elliott has to secure a win to keep hold of his impressive streak of not missing out on the last 16 since making his Cup debut with HMS. It would be disappointing results for the driver and his fans, who is among the majority in the NASCAR community.
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Justin P Joy
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