2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott ended his winning streak at 42 last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He showed plenty of maturity en route to his sixth win of the No. 9 team’s Next Generation era, gradually moving up the track and holding off challenges from Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain to take the win.
It was Chase Elliott’s first win since the playoff race at Talladega in 2022, but his lack of consistency has been a big topic of discussion since then. The 2023 season ended without a win and they failed to qualify for the playoffs. His winning streak was largely due to an injury he sustained while snowboarding before the third race last year, and it took him a lot of time to recover and get back into shape.
During the period the HMS driver received a lot of criticism, especially from the media about his form and questions were asked about his prowess’ behind the wheels of Next-Gen cars. Now the No:9 team crew chief Alan Gustafson has come forward addressing this criticism after Texas win and called some of them out.
Alan Gustafson listed Chase Elliott’s success in the Next-Gen era
The championship winning crew chief went on to list out his driver’s accomplishment in the Next-Gen era. He pointed out that Elliott won five races and the regular season championship in 2022 and only the snowboarding accident is what cost him the momentum in 2023. Gustafson added that so far in 2024 Elliott has solid average running position and results.
The Chevy driver has put him in the championship conversation alongside his teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron with the victory. He now would be hoping to contend for more wins in the coming races and place him in a good position for a potential championship win.
