Alan Gustufson-Bonehead of the Week

Formerjackman

Formerjackman

Team Owner
Joined
Aug 15, 2017
Messages
6,083
Points
793
The absolute WORST pit strategy I have seen in a LONG time. Stay out on old tires early in the race-DOES NOT WORK. Do the EXACT same thing later in the race STILL DOES NOT WORK. Then, once your bed is made and you are committed to staying out, THEN pit and give up all your track position. UN-FREAKING BELIEVABLE! :(:mad::dual9mm::angry:
 
First off, Chase made the call to stay out towards the end of the race. He ended up getting doored by Brad and in a bad position. Can’t blame Alan there. They only had 1 set of tires left.

That final set of tires granted them speed on the last run and snagged a top 10.

Alan has done a phenomenal job of bringing fast cars to the track for years. He just needs to get his tire changers in line. If they can consistently rattle off mistake free stops, Chase is gonna win a lot.
 
Marcingak said:
The 2 car's pit strategy was even worse.
Click to expand...

At least the 2 stayed committed to the no pit strategy until all the late cautions totally wiped out any chance of getting a good finish. The 9 bailed on the stay out strategy the first chance they got, the worst of both worlds. Pretty much as goofy as what the 19 did at Phoenix last year.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
First off, Chase made the call to stay out towards the end of the race. He ended up getting doored by Brad and in a bad position. Can’t blame Alan there. They only had 1 set of tires left.

That final set of tires granted them speed on the last run and snagged a top 10.

Alan has done a phenomenal job of bringing fast cars to the track for years. He just needs to get his tire changers in line. If they can consistently rattle off mistake free stops, Chase is gonna win a lot.
Click to expand...

Alan absolutely should have overruled Chase. That's why you have a crew chief. Did they learn NOTHING from the first time they tried it? Don't get me wrong, I love Alan, but today will not go down as one of his better days.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
I’m gonna need you to explain how Alan brings the car down pit road.
Click to expand...

Alan is the BOSS. What he says goes. You ask the driver his opinion. You are under no obligation to follow it. I worked for a guy that had 600 Cup starts as a driver and he was ALWAYS telling me drivers don't know anything.......
 
Formerjackman said:
Alan is the BOSS. What he says goes. You ask the driver his opinion. You are under no obligation to follow it. I worked for a guy that had 600 Cup starts as a driver and he was ALWAYS telling me drivers don't know anything.......
Click to expand...
Driver still has his hands on the wheel. Not coming down pit road is not Alan’s fault.
 
Often times Alan will defer to Chase. Leaving it up to him and letting him make the call, and I think that's very fair, Chase knows what he can and can't do on old tires in that situation more than Alan does. Not saying that's what happened in this case but it's definitely happened in the past.

At the end of the day, you have to be extremely fortunate at the end of these races these days with the way things unfold and today just didn't go in their favor at all. I'm just glad they're off to a hot start to begin the season, that hasn't been a strength of theirs and I think it bodes well for them going forward.

To add to what Chex said, I think Alan is arguably the most underrated CC on pit road. He brought race winning cars to the track when Chevy was at its lowest, week after week.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
To add to what Chex said, I think Alan is arguably the most underrated CC on pit road. He brought race winning cars to the track when Chevy was at its lowest, week after week.
Click to expand...

He's also responsible for the crew.
 
I feel so bad for Chase. He tries so hard. Chasing History is really, really tough.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
Often times Alan will defer to Chase. Leaving it up to him and letting him make the call, and I think that's very fair, Chase knows what he can and can't do on old tires in that situation more than Alan does. Not saying that's what happened in this case but it's definitely happened in the past.

At the end of the day, you have to be extremely fortunate at the end of these races these days with the way things unfold and today just didn't go in their favor at all. I'm just glad they're off to a hot start to begin the season, that hasn't been a strength of theirs and I think it bodes well for them going forward.

To add to what Chex said, I think Alan is arguably the most underrated CC on pit road. He brought race winning cars to the track when Chevy was at its lowest, week after week.
Click to expand...

The problem with letting the driver make the call is he doesn't see the WHOLE picture. He only knows what his car is doing, what laps times he's running, etc. He doesn't know how many cars are on the lead lap, what the tires coming off the car look like, lots of things going on that he can't see through his windshield. It's OK in a real tossup situation to let the driver have his way, but in my opinion the call in the final stage was a no-brainer, especially after they started dropping back when they tried it earlier in the race. The proof that it was a bad call was when they pitted under caution just a few laps later. All that did was cause them to lose a ton more track position and have that many fewer laps to get back to the front. Were they NOT watching Allgaier on Saturday? He tried a similar strategy and it didn't work for him either. Basically, they painted themselves into such a small corner that everything would have had to fall PERFECTLY for them to win. The one thing that I see that seems to get overlooked so often (especially at plate tracks) is that guys will put on tires with 10 and give up tons of track position acting as if they are going to get 10 green flag laps, which is so seldom the case once the field gets bunched up. If you are going to lose track position to get tires, you have to get them on early enough, or you might as well try to hold them off with the old tires. I like Alan a lot and think he does a great job for the most part, but that call boggled the mind. As for whatever Chase wanted to do, Alan gets paid to call the race and he needs to do that.
 
Formerjackman said:
I don't know too many drivers that can get away with that.
Click to expand...

Lol, this reminded me of a time when Harvick was in the 29. They had been having pit troubles all day. I think Gil Martin was the crew chief. Anyway, he called Harvick in to the pits under caution but Kevin just drove right by. Gil came on the radio and said "did I miss something?" Harvick came back on and says he didn't dare come in, meaning he didn't want to give them a chance to screw up again.
I'd guess that probably didn't go over to well at Mondays meeting.
 
Switchback said:
Lol, this reminded me of a time when Harvick was in the 29. They had been having pit troubles all day. I think Gil Martin was the crew chief. Anyway, he called Harvick in to the pits under caution but Kevin just drove right by. Gil came on the radio and said "did I miss something?" Harvick came back on and says he didn't dare come in, meaning he didn't want to give them a chance to screw up again.
I'd guess that probably didn't go over to well at Mondays meeting.
Click to expand...
Logano said first he didn't hear Wolfe telling him to pit when he stayed out and won the race at Vegas, but changed his story to include "we" the second time telling it.
 
aunty dive said:
Whenever I decide it's time to second-guess a successful, accomplished person, I start by spelling the person's name correctly.
Click to expand...
upload_2020-3-9_14-4-22.jpeg
 
aunty dive said:
Whenever I decide it's time to second-guess a successful, accomplished person, I start by spelling the person's name correctly.
Click to expand...

Well, evidently if you make a typo in a header, you can't go back and fix it, even if its inside the time window. And yes, even successful accomplished crew chiefs make mistakes. Yesterday was a BIG one.
 
Are we really making the argument that Alan Gustafson should be the lead guy on strategy calls every time?
 
Rick if he wants to -- then Gustafson. :)

But maybe Chase by virtue of holding the wheel.

Did I win da spellin be?
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Are we really making the argument that Alan Gustafson should be the lead guy on strategy calls every time?
Click to expand...

Well I am. SOMEBODY has to be the final authority, and it should be and usually IS the crew chief. That's a BIG part of the job and a big reason why some really good guys don't last long as crew chiefs. A couple of years back, Indiana University had a great guy as the basketball coach. Nice guy, great character, great recruiter, great motivator. The problem was, he couldn't manage a game worth a damn. He was John Wooden or Coach K until the game started. Then he just sucked. His name is Tom Crean, brother in law to the Harbaugh brothers.
 
Maybe Tom Crean brother in law of the Harbaugh brothers can be the new crew chief for Chase?
 
Formerjackman said:
Well I am. SOMEBODY has to be the final authority, and it should be and usually IS the crew chief. That's a BIG part of the job and a big reason why some really good guys don't last long as crew chiefs. A couple of years back, Indiana University had a great guy as the basketball coach. Nice guy, great character, great recruiter, great motivator. The problem was, he couldn't manage a game worth a damn. He was John Wooden or Coach K until the game started. Then he just sucked. His name is Tom Crean, brother in law to the Harbaugh brothers.
Click to expand...

It's Monday -- what's your prognosis for butthurt? Is this a chronic condition for you?

I agree -- Gustafson runs the Team. It's on him.
 
Ventisca said:
It's Monday -- what's your prognosis for butthurt? Is this a chronic condition for you?

I agree -- Gustafson runs the Team. It's on him.
Click to expand...

I get butthurt when my favorite team throws away a legitimate shot to win a race on a call that I KNEW was the wrong call the second they made it. Is that not what fans do? There are football fans still bent all out of shape about Pete Carroll's goal line play call in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. Don't I at least get two or three days to be pissed off? :)
 
Formerjackman said:
Well I am. SOMEBODY has to be the final authority, and it should be and usually IS the crew chief. That's a BIG part of the job and a big reason why some really good guys don't last long as crew chiefs. A couple of years back, Indiana University had a great guy as the basketball coach. Nice guy, great character, great recruiter, great motivator. The problem was, he couldn't manage a game worth a damn. He was John Wooden or Coach K until the game started. Then he just sucked. His name is Tom Crean, brother in law to the Harbaugh brothers.
Click to expand...
Clear as day you haven’t watched much of Alan Gustafson’s races. He’s a damn genius when bringing speed but he’s one of the worst in the strategy department.

You also have no clue to how much Alan deferred to Jeff and Mark. You act like Alan ordered Chase in and Chase straight up objected like an angsty teenager.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom