Between the 2023 and 2025 seasons, Chase Elliott had only won three races in total. This came after his brilliant 2022, where he won four times. This run of poor form attracted a lot of criticism from his fans towards the crew chief, Alan Gustafson. Even recently, this trend continued, but the duo put a temporary pause to that with their win at Martinsville.

Chase Elliott is unaffected by criticism against his crew chief online

Chase Elliott’s fans, who are some of the most passionate and loyal fans in all of NASCAR. They have time and again demanded their favorite driver get a new crew chief. However, Elliott has also made it clear that he and Gustafson share a wonderful relationship in which both have complete faith in each other and want to continue working together.

Following his win at Martinsville, which largely came because of a crucial call made by Gustafson to pit early in the final stage, Chase Elliott opened up on his relationship with his crew chief. Elliott said on the Dale Jr. Download that despite the online outrage and criticism against Gustafson, his belief in him doesn’t waver.

“I think it all kind of started with just a lot of respect. When you come into the sport, and you’re a young guy, and you don’t know nothing and you don’t deserve any respect,” said Elliott. “Somebody that has been there for a long time in a lot of different cases would very easily look down on someone who doesn’t have any experience, that doesn’t have all the answers, or doesn’t have any idea what they’re getting themselves into. And I think for me it was the exact opposite from him. It was a lot of respect.”

It’s worth mentioning that before Gustafson was paired up with Elliott, he was the crew chief of Jeff Gordon. In fact, he has been a crew chief at HMS since 2005, for 22 years.

Elliott claimed the mutual respect right from the get-go set their relationship up to be a successful one right from the beginning. He emphasized that when a young driver receives that type of respect, he also feels obliged to give it back.

Jeff Gordon has a theory on the intense scrutiny on NASCAR’s most popular driver

Jeff Gordon, who knows a thing or two about success in the face of criticism from fans, addressed the Alan Gustafson criticism after the win at Martinsville. During a post-race media availability session, Gordon, the vice-president of the team, claimed that it is only natural for the most popular drivers and the brightest stars to get the most scrutiny from the outside.

“Whether it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Chase Elliott, whoever is the popular driver in the series, there are a lot of critics that want to sit on the sidelines and evaluate it,” he said.

The 4x Cup champion, who was criticised and disliked in the early stages of his career by a lot of Dale Earnhardt fans, emphasized the need to stay strong internally and have strong belief.

Gordon claimed that same was the case and foundation for Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson, as they continue to carry their driver-crew chief relationship forward in the 11th year, the longest one in the garage at present.