Alan Gustafson Not Happy With The Chase Format

USA Today Sports

There stood Jeff Gordon, leading with nine laps to go, electing to pit to change four tires on his own decision after Alan Gustafson had him stay out with 19 laps left on old tires. Gustafson is regretting that decision and the way The Chase for the Sprint Cup unfolded for his driver and the whole Drive to End Hunger/Axalta race team.

In an interview with “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM’ NASCAR radio on Tuesday he explained the decision for Gordon to pit with nine laps left in the finale of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup series season:

“Really, the error was made, I stayed out when the majority of the field pitted and that put us in a bad situation,’’ Gustafson said of the caution 19 laps from the finish. “Jeff felt like (on the following caution) we weren’t in a very good position to succeed, so we made a decision to come pit.

“Really the first stop, when us and Denny (Hamlin) and … a few other cars stayed out, that was the one that really hurt us. That’s on me. It was a mistake I made. I tried to keep the track position. I felt like that was going to be the highest percentage decision and it ended up not being. That put us behind unfortunately. I think we had the best car. The team deserved to win the race. It was a bad decision from my part and I’m going to learn from it.

“It would be really easy for me to make a lot of excuses and say, ‘Hey there’s a lot of circumstances that play into it – and there are and it is a very tough thing to do – but that’s my job and in that situation I feel like I didn’t do it to the best of my capabilities.’’

This is in contrary to radio conversations between Gordon and his Crew Chief where Gustafson left it in Gordon’s hands whether to pit or not.

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He further elaborated on the whole Chase format:

“I’m still not at piece at what happened in that final segment (of the Chase),’‘ Gustafson said. “I don’t think we got by any stretch of the imagination what we deserved. That’s something that I’m just going to try to work through in the offseason and get to a point to accept it and use it as motivation moving forward.

“I know in my heart this is a championship-caliber team, and we deserve the opportunity to race for that championship. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do it. I’m not saying that in a spiteful way, I’m using it as … a way to stay motivated to push through this offseason and come out next year better than ever.’’

It is obvious if you read between the lines that the 24 team has a sour taste in their mouths from the season that dreams are made of, turning into a nightmare. As we all recall this was as a result of one poor finish at Texas in which Gordon was leading with a couple of laps left in where Brad Keselowski got into Gordon’s left rear tire, causing it to cut down, forcing a spin leading to a 29th place finish. As a result Gordon did not qualify to compete for The Chase for The Sprint Cup in the final race of the season.

We are all left to wonder if Gordon had qualified for The Chase for The Sprint Cup finale in Homestead; what the call would have been with 9 laps left to go in, race win and championship on the line with Kevin Harvick nipping at his heels

Michael Eliadis is a staff writer at beyondtheflag.com and on the FanSided Network. Please be sure to follow us on Twitter at: @beyond_the_flag and be sure to “Like” us on Facebook

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