	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NASCAR CUP SERIES: NASCAR ALL-STAR RACE

July 15, 2020

Alan Gustafson

Bristol, Tennessee

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our raceâ€‘winning crew chief, Alan Gustafson.
Why don't you just start off and quickly run through the race from the top of the pit box.
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, we started 13th, so we knew we had to pass some cars pretty quickly. UniFirst Chevy was pretty fast. He made up some pretty quick ground there. I don't remember where we got to after the first 55. Certainly somewhere in the top three.
We knew we were going to pit there and get a read on the tires, get an adjustment on the car. We did that. The next 35 went pretty well. He was able to get past Kevin and get the lead.
That was probably the toughest decision of the night. When you have the lead, you don't want to give it up here. Our plan had been to pit then and get tires. With the lead, it made it a little bit more difficult. We stuck to our guns there, pitted. Worked out there. I think Ryan was the only one that stayed out. Brad took two. Fortunately for us everything went smooth from there.
Having a tire advantage on those guys certainly paid off. Kyle was getting pretty good there where I could see him making some ground. Certainly made a push there at the end to make it interesting.
Car was really good. Happy. Pit stops were great. Just about as smooth of a night as you could ask for.
THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions.

Q. You get there today and see pretty heavy application of the PJ1 on the bottom groove, a 20â€‘car race, are you thinking this is going to be a bottom feeder race?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, you know, my experience with the grooves here is you don't really run the top in until you have to start lapping traffic significantly, right? That's when you start running the top in, is when you have to lap cars. The leaders get strung out, you have no option. The faster cars will ultimately start running the top because they have to get through lappers.
With it being as short as it is, knowing it's a short field, the chance of lapping cars... We had planned on the bottom, really having our car get on the bottom and having good short run speed.

Q. Looked like you had Chase turn off the under glow lights for the pit stop. If you did, was that so your crew guys could see better or something you were concerned about?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: That's a secret. I can't tell you that (laughter). No, I'm kidding.
Yeah, we hadn't done it before. I didn't want to take a chance and have the lightsâ€‘â€‘ we didn't get the lights until pretty late in the game. We hadn't had experience doing it. I don't think it would be a problem ultimately. Certainly we weren't going to take that chance.

Q. What does this win do for your team?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: It puts a million bucks in our bank account, that's always a good thing. Certainly happy for Chevrolet and UniFirst. Everybody at HMS works really hard. A win will certainly lift everybody's spirits and give you some momentum.
Yeah, I certainly wish this was a points race. We got to get back on track. We've had a couple races, a stretch, that haven't been the greatest for us. I think we've had some pretty decent performance in our cars.
That's the way it goes sometimes, you just don't get the finishes that you feel like you deserve. That's certainly the case at Indianapolis and Kentucky and the first Pocono.
Yeah, we're going to work hard. This doesn't hurt. Bristol has been a good track for us. This was an opportunity for us to work on a few things that we struggled with in the spring to be prepared when we come back here when it really matters.

Q. For some of the races coming up, do you feel you have a pretty good string of strong tracks, this can help you gain some momentum in the official points races?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: We have some points to make up. We've slid a few spots. It's pretty close from second to fourth where we're at.
To be honest with you, Texas and Loudon aren't two of our better tracks. Those tracks we've circled to work hard on and try to improve. I feel like we can. I think we learned some things from Kentucky we can take to Texas. We're looking forward to putting that to use. Loudon is a place we need to work on. We've had some decent runs there. I wouldn't say we've got that one circled as one of our favorites.
Yeah, look, any time you can win, it's better. I don't know that it's going to be a huge step forward. This track is so unique, I can't say that what we've done here is going to help Texas.

Q. You only have to bring one racecar to the racetrack each and every weekend. Does that change how you prepare in the shop? Do you have to focus on specific cars?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: To be honest with you, I don't think if we had backup cars weekly we could do it with the schedule we've had. The way we're working split shifts, trying to keep the road crew away from the shop crew as much as possible. Man, it would be just a monumental task to do that with backup cars.
I think it's been a must. I wouldn't say that it's put us in a better position to focus on the primary car. It's just kept that status quo or the way it was. I don't think us or any other team could keep their head above water in this kind of COVID era, the schedule we've run with having to do two cars every weekend.

Q. A stretch of four races in 11 days. Certainly you did this earlier in May. Those were only at two tracks. Four different tracks, four different locations. What are the challenges in this stretch, how you're getting things prepared?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, it's a tougher swing for sure with a Wednesday night race, then a Sunday race in Texas, then back to Kansas on Thursday. That's tough. Then we've got some doubleheaders coming down the road. Certainly have to get those cars prepared.
We're full gas. It's a lot of hours. It's a lot of prep. It's not going to be easy. It's one of those situations, I think I talked about this before, it's one of those situations where you're just trying to keep the quality up and keep the cars as good as you can and try to find a way to improve throughout all that, which is difficult to do.
It's going to be a tough stretch. I think it will be an opportunity to make some ground on some people if you get it right.

Q. It's about a month away, you'll be racing on the Daytona road course. You haven't done that before. The challenges in getting ready for that? Is that simple for you guys, you just bring out your Roval winning car and run it there?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: It's not simple. It's going to be difficult for everybody. You're not going to have any references really. Certainly there are some characteristics of the Roval, but it's obviously a bigger oval and the speeds are going to be higher. The infield is pretty unique. In my experience, a million years ago road racing there, it's a track that's hard to get ahold of.
That infield is not the easiest to navigate and get the car hooked up on. It's going to present some unique challenges. Certainly the speed of the banking, it's a pretty dedicated true chicane unlike what we've run at the Roval. That will be different I think for everybody to get ahold of. We'll have to manage the speeds, too.
It will be a very, very unique experience. But I'm looking forward to it. It will be a fun challenge. I really like that road course. I hope the cars race well there. I think they will. I hope it all goes well obviously for us.

Q. The significance to you of helping Chase get his first marquee win?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: To win at Bristol is cool no matter when you do it. The first Allâ€‘Star Race, pretty unique circumstances, something we haven't done before. Any time you can be the first at something, you feel like you've done a good job.
Yeah, I mean, it's very satisfying for all of us. Certainly I think Chase is the best out there, so any time we can help give him a car like we did tonight to showcase his talents, it's very gratifying.

Q. How did the choose rule play out from your perspective? What kind of communication did you have with Chase about which lane to take?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: That's a great question. We had some statistical analysis of that and the effectiveness of the lane. We talked about it beforehand. I think he used that information every time but once. He kind of went against the grain. We certainly leave that up to him. He knows what the car is driving like, what the opportunities are.
I don't think it's an absolute monumental change to the sport. I've been in this situation a lot of times where it's just really frustrating when you get taken out of an opportunity to race for a win because of a lane.
There are some tracks, this is one of them, that the lanes can get a huge amount of disparity. It kind of sucks when you're second or third and get stuck on the bottom, end up seventh or eighth, don't get a chance to race for the win.
I think it gives it an opportunity to make it a little bit more fair for the competitors. I don't think it's going to be a monumental shift. It's probably going to affect a row or two like what you saw tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us. Congratulations on the win. Good luck in Texas.
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297