Fantasy NASCAR Racing

the 2011 season, Gustafson helped Gordon get to victory lane three times at Phoenix, Pocono, and Atlanta.  In 2012 Gordon won twice, and in 2013 the duo won again.  During this span Gordon passed Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip to move up to third in the all time Cup wins list.  As 2014 kicked off Gustafson and Gordon had a good season with Gordon winning four times and finished sixth in points.  2015 would be Gordon's last full time season and he and Gustafson would win very late in the season to qualify him for the Chase.  Kyle Busch would win the final race at Homestead and the Championship.  Gordon finished third in the points.  After Gordon's retirement Alan was paired up with a young Chase Elliott with plans of great things happening.  Elliott had a great rookie season finishing second twice and had ten Top 5 finishes.  He won Rookie of the Year; but there was disappointment the rookie had not won a race.  In 2017 Elliott again had a good season; this time he had 12 Top 5 finishes; but again failed to win a race.  He had five second place finishes.  For 2018 the Elliott / Gustafson combo planed on breaking through for their first win.  After five second place finishes in 2017; Chase Elliott was due to get his first Cup win; and Gustafson was ready to lead him to it.  A great pit call got Elliott out in the lead at Watkins Glen; and great driving by Elliott saw the youngster grab his first win.  The pairing went on to win two more times before the season ended.  Chase made it to the third round of the Chase, but contact with Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin eliminated him from running for the Championship in the final race.  The pair were back together for 2019.  The year dawned with high hopes of a good season.  But much like 2018 the Hendrick cars just didn't seem to have the speed to run for the wins.  Elliott had a second place finish at Martinsville; but other than that he finished mostly from ninth to 17th place.  He broke through and won at Talladega and followed that up with four more Top 5 finishes.  Then the pair couldn't keep the car up front once again finishing mid-pack.  Chase repeated his win at Watkins Glen as he had the best car all day.  In the Chase the pair were competitive; Elliott even won on the Roval at Charlotte giving him his third win of the season.  But in the third round of the playoffs everything fell apart.  First at Martinsville he broke an axle and lost 50 laps making repairs.  The next week at Texas Chase spun out on lap nine of the race and limped home to a 32nd place finish.  They went to Phoenix in a must win situation to advance to the finals.  Chase had a fast car and was real good on a long run.  But he blew a tire and crashed half way through the race thus eliminating him for a shot at the Championship.  For the season they finished a disappointing tenth.  But the was back together again in 2020 to give it another shot.  Gustafson arguably had his best season as a crew chief to date.  His driver Chase Elliott had a rough start finishing 17th at Daytona and 26th at Las Vegas.  Then they run a few races finishing inside the top seven before looking to get their first win of the season at Darlington.  Rain was very near and the race was past half way.  A yellow flew and Gustafson called Elliott in to get new tires while many of the leaders stayed out.  When the green flag flew Elliott was second a lap faster than any car on the track and slashed his way through traffic and up into the top five in just a couple laps.  Denny Hamlin was leading and Kyle Busch running second and Chase was coming quick.  Busch recognized Elliott was much faster than he and pulled to the inside to let Elliott go by and move into second.  Elliot was now within two car lengths of Hamlin; another lap and Elliot would go blowing by and into the lead.  As Busch pulled back into line he misjudged the distance, and clipped Elliott's left rear and turned him into the wall.  The yellow flew again and before they could get back to racing; the rain came and Hamlin got the win.  The next race in the Coke 600 Elliott had the strongest car and was cruising to the win.  He had a big lead; but with two laps to go the yellow flew.  Gustafson elected to have Elliott stay out and the rest of the field pitted.  Chase was a sitting duck when the green flew as Keselowski got the win.  That was two wins in a row that had got away.  Three days later NASCAR was at Charlotte again; and Chase was dominate again.  This time things went his way and they got their first win of the season.  A few weeks later at Bristol, Elliott was again poised to when when very late in the race Jory Logano got into his and damaged his car.  Gustafson kept bringing strong cars for Elliott to drive and they kept posting good results.  NASCAR had to shuffle the schedule due to the coronavirus and the Cup Series raced on the Daytona Road Course.  Elliott had won twice on road courses in 2019; and he promptly won here.  As the Chase opened at Darlington; Chase was leading as the laps wound down and Martin Truex was pushing to try and run him down.  Elliott held a consistent lead lap after lap; but slipped a bit coming off of turn four and lost his momentum.  Truex saw this as his chance to take the lead and went low on Elliott in turn one.  Truex had pushed his car too hard and it lost grip and slid up into Elliott knocking him into the wall and ruining his car.  Truex also damaged his car and both of their nights were ruined.  Again; another lost opportunity to win.  He run well in the Chase; and when NASCAR went to race in the Roval at Charlotte; Elliott was in victory lane again.  In the last round before the Championship Elliott ran well at Kansas; but a bad tire at Texas caused him to have to make an extra pit stop and he lost a lap early.  He spent all day and was never able to make that lap up and he finished 20th.  Martinsville was a must-win situation for Elliott to advance to the Championship.  Gustafson brought a stout car and Elliott led almost half the laps to win the race.  At Phoenix Elliott had a good long run car.  As luck would have it the final 100 laps were run under green and Elliott won the race and the Championship.  Gustafson and Elliott were once again a favorite to win at most tracks.  Elliott got his first win of the year at Circuit of the America’s road course.  Elliott won again on the road course of Road America in WI.  Elliott had seven second place finishes, including the major events of the Daytona 500 and Coke 600.  They had 15 Top 5 and 21 Top 10 finishes.   2022 was a good year from the pairing of Chase Elliott and Alan Gustafson.  A good season could have been even better.  The start of the year was a little below par for the team, as they learned more and more about the new NextGen car.  After a tenth place finish in the Daytona 500, a simple flat at Fontana saw the car have to be towed back to pit road so the tires could be changed; losing two laps; finishing 26th.  Other than that, the first ten races saw then finish no worse than 14th; with seven top tens.  They broke through for their first win of the season at Dover; leading 73 laps.  But, things hadn't just quite gelled yet.  Finally, at Nashville, things began to come together. Elliott led 42 laps to get the win there; and the next race he led 36 laps, and looked like he could win; but his car faded toward the end and Tyler Reddick would get by for the win, leaving Elliott in second.  The very next week, Elliott won at his home track of Atlanta, and finished second again the next week at Loudon NH.  At Pocono he crossed the finish line in third, but both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were disqualified, leaving Elliott with his third win in five weeks.  This five week stretch propelled him into the lead of the regular season points, a lead they he would hold on to through the end of the regular season.  He had a shot to win at Watkins Glen as he was driving away to an easy win, when a late race yellow set up a show down between Elliott and his HMS team mate Kyle Larson.  As they entered the first turn on the restart; Larson used Elliott up; almost sending him into the outside retaining wall.  By the time Chase had his car under control; Larson was driving off into the distance for the win.  So that's another win that got away.  In the Chase he started off poorly the first race of each round; but managed to fight back and advance.  He finished second at Bristol; and added another win when the Cup Series visited Talladega, punching his ticket into the round of eight.  At the Roval; he was easily driving away to another victory when a yellow came out with a couple laps to go.  On the restart he got roughed up and spun out; taking away another probable win.  They managed to do enough in the round of eight to advance into the Championship four at Phoenix.  He struggled early in that race; but Gustafson worked on the car every pit stop and made it better as the race went along.  He was up to third as the final stage started; but a tangle with Ross Chastain saw him spin and hit the inside retaining wall, bending the steering controls, costing them a shot at their second Cup Championship. They was back together in 2023 looking to get Chase his second Cup championship.  Alan worked with three different drivers in 2023; but all of them drove the #9 car.  Chase Elliott, the normal driver, got injured and had to miss six races right after the second race of the season.  Josh Berry was brought in to fill his spot while he healed.  Gustafson worked with Berry two races; and had a top ten at Phoenix.  Alan also worked one race with Corey LaJoie after Chase got suspended on a questionable call from NASCAR at Charlotte.  But when Chase was in the car he ran well.  They finished second at Fontana, the second race of the season.  During the regular season Elliott only had four races he finished worse than 13th.  Three times he got caught up in crashes, and then at Watkins Glen, Gustafson mis-figured their gas mileage and Chase run out of gas on the back straight and coasted to a stop; losing a couple laps getting pushed back to the pits.  Due to Chase missing so many races; they failed to make the playoffs.  But it should be noted that even though they missed seven races, they came within 40 points of making the Chase anyway.  Since Josh Berry had several good runs in the #9; the car did qualify for the Chase in the owners championship.  Chase and Alan will be back together in 2024.  So far in his career, Gustafson has led his drivers to 38 wins; including the Southern 500 (2009) and BrickYard 400 (2014).  He also has the Cup Championship with Elliott in 2020.