Gustafson joins NASCAR Daily ahead of Bristol playoff race
Chase Elliott's crew chief Alan Gustafson joins Shannon Spake on NASCAR Daily to talk what the No. 9 team expects going to Bristol.
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00:00Let's bring in Alan Gustafson now because he's got his work cut out for him. He knows that
00:04he's won at Bristol back in the day with Kyle Busch. And Alan, thanks for joining us. I remember
00:09Steve Letart one time told me when I was working on Pit Road that being on the pits in Bristol is
00:15like playing football in the rain. It just is never comfortable. You always feel like there's
00:21something else going on. What's the biggest challenge for you as a crew chief on top of
00:26that pit box? Yeah, I think there's a lot of challenges. I mean, it's super loud and chaotic
00:32and, you know, 16 second laps. So things happen really, really fast. And, you know, certainly
00:39top of mind, I think for all of us this weekend is going to be the tire wear and how to handle
00:43that and put yourself in the best position possible yet to not be that first guy who has
00:47had tire issues and have to pit under green. So, yeah, I think the exterior senses, you know,
00:53it's like sensation overload and you have to just kind of block all that stuff out. Tough to
00:58communicate, noise, you know, hard to hear, hard to talk, hard for the driver to hear.
01:04Yeah, just got to block all that out and just, you know, really concise, direct communication.
01:09And yeah, try to not let the chaos kind of get to you. I haven't been down there in the pits
01:14for a really long time. But when I was, you guys were like riding on whiteboards on dry erase.
01:19Do you guys still do that or are we more advanced at this point?
01:22Yeah, no, no. Like you resort to any means necessary to communicate this situation. So,
01:28yeah, whiteboards, paper, hand signals, you know, some universal hand signals every once in a while.
01:36Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, whatever it takes to get your point across.
01:40Do like in football and stuff, when I go to practice before like a really where they know
01:45that the environment is going to be super incredible, they'll jack up music, even at
01:49basketball practices. Is it the same? Can you guys at all mimic what it's going to be like in there
01:53for your crew guys? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think for us, you know, pit practice, we can do
01:59that, right? And we can make the environment as difficult as we can and loud. And like you said,
02:03you know, uncomfortable. But I think from the engineering side, it's difficult for us to
02:08simulate that, you know, communicating back here to the shop or communicating to your guys
02:12at the track. And we spent, you know, lots of time and lots of money on, you know,
02:18the best communication possible. And, yeah, Bristol's probably the worst environment for
02:23that. So it makes it makes it really difficult. And yeah, just stuff you've got to overcome.
02:28With all that being said, I think a huge key is just being prepared on the front side, right? I
02:33mean, if you've gone through as much as you possibly can, you get yourself in the best
02:37position as far as preparation goes. Then when those things come up, you're a bit more, you
02:42know, it's not a huge stretch to understand what you need to communicate and understand and get
02:47across. I'm glad you mentioned the tires. It's crazy because we've seen so many iterations of
02:52Bristol over the years, you know, not just obviously the dirt, but just the way that
02:56the racing has changed. And it was really unique in the spring, right, because of the tires that
03:00we saw on on those cars. I mean, how do you expect that to translate to the night race?
03:05Yeah, I mean, I think that's really the question. Certainly every crew chief,
03:10every chase crew chief is kind of thinking about right now, right? I mean,
03:13you don't know the answer. I certainly don't know the answer.
03:16Yeah, no, I can guarantee you right now. No one knows the answer, including Goodyear,
03:20including NASCAR, including any crew chief or driver. So don't let them tell you different.
03:24Nobody knows the answer. You know, in the spring we ran this tire, I think to kind of rewind,
03:29we ran this tire in the fall last year, kind of normal situation. The groove moved up top,
03:36you know, tire wear wasn't a huge concern, although the objective for Goodyear was to
03:41have the tires wear out a bit more. You know, fast forward to the spring, NASCAR has, you know,
03:48the damp track condition initiative at Bristol. So the traction compound that we used to use,
03:57used at the night race, the PJ1, doesn't want to do well in wet conditions. So they used a different
04:03traction compound. And then we go there in the spring and yeah, we can't make it 40 laps killing
04:09tires. So, you know, wearing them out and that caused all the chaos that that caused and, you
04:15know, made for obviously a super exciting event, but an event that was, yeah, took a couple of
04:19years off my life and probably all the rest of the crew chiefs on pit road. So now we're going back
04:25at night, you know, the conditions are a bit different. The traction compound hasn't changed,
04:29the tire hasn't changed. But I think one thing that is going to be different this race
04:36from the spring is the Xfinity race will be there. So we don't know how much that's going to affect
04:40it, you know, how much rubber they'll be able to put out. Will that change? Will that be allow us,
04:45you know, will they get enough rubber down to where we can get up top and not kill tires? So
04:48I think all that stuff is super unknown and going to be learned as we go.
04:56All right. So drinking word or phrase of the weekend is traction compound, everybody at home.
05:01When we hear it, make sure you get those drinks. Before I let you go,
05:04you guys are 30 to the good right now. I think that's the number, right? Let me double check.
05:10On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the best, how safe do you feel going into Bristol?
05:17Three. You're like, can you say traction compound right now?
05:21Yeah. I think my drinking word is points. So we know, yeah, every time I hear about points
05:28throughout the weekend. So, yeah, I mean, I think that we're in a pretty good position
05:32relative, but it's just, yeah, you just never know. I don't think you're ever comfortable in
05:35the chase or the playoffs till you move on and you, you know, get that word during the race
05:40that you've scored enough playoff points or done enough that you're locked in. And then you're
05:44like, all right, let's go try to win. All right. Well, good luck this weekend,
05:48my friend. Good luck making that drive to victory lane and get in the wind, you know,
05:52chase Elliott fans. I'm going to come try to find you to say hi. Cause I am coming in,
05:56which I'm so excited. I've never, I've never been able to be there. I'll bring my headphones
06:00and all that stuff. So I don't have to take much Advil. I'm excited. I'm excited to see
06:04Shannon fan mode. It'll be fun. All right. Bye. I'll see you soon. Good luck.