2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott shed light on his relationship with crew chief Alan Gustafson and their approach.
Elliott became the third-youngest driver in the Cup Series history to win the championship. Helping the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver behind the stage was his crew chief, Gustafson.
Now a championship-winning duo, their relationship will come into more limelight. Speaking about which Elliott said:
“We both want the same things. I think for us, we work well together in the sense that we both know what we want to do. We both know we want to win as many races as we can and championships and so on.
“So we just need to focus on the things that we’ve always focused on, being ourselves. We have a kind of system that honestly we haven’t changed since I got to Cup, so I think this year was really cool just to know that ‘hey our approach is no different.”
While the season began at a slow pace for the No.9 team, they proved their title credentials by winning the important race in the playoff. Also, it was the first time that Elliott made it to the Championship 4 race.
“When we were meeting for Phoenix, our meeting and approach was no different that day than it was when I was getting ready for my first Daytona 500 with him.
“So I think that’s really cool to know that just over time your experience, we’re getting better, us working together better has improved.
“It really gives you a lot of confidence to know that his way of doing things is good enough to run. I think there’s no need to change that now, we just need to continue to work in areas that we haven’t been successful at. “
The duo will have to work even harder to defend their crown in the 2021 season. It will be interesting to see how they will strategize for races after their successful 2020 season.
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