Alan Gustafson feeling confident heading into rest of season

On Sunday, history was made as Jeff Gordon scored his fifth Indianapolis Motor Speedway victory. While it marked Gordon’s fifth victory, it marked Gustafson’s first visit to Indianapolis victory lane as a crew chief – and for that reason, it meant a lot to the Florida native.

“I think Indy demands the best of everything,” Gustafson said. “You have to have a great car, great engine, great driver, great team, great setup, everything.  Strategy has to be perfect.  Everything about that race is extremely, extremely difficult. You take that challenge and then you put it in that environment with the history of the racetrack.  That racetrack, in my opinion, is such a world stage.  Everybody in the world knows Indianapolis Motor Speedway, knows the history and heritage behind it.  A huge, huge place.

“I enjoy the history of the place.  I love walking in there.  I love the feel of the track.  I love the tradition.  It’s just something that I really enjoy. If it had to be a race, that’s the one I would pick.  Obviously the Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the year for us.  That gets a lot of attention.  It should be.  But what differentiates Indianapolis and Daytona for me is, as a person who loves racing, the engineering side of racing, technology, trying to get a car to go fast, that applies more at Indianapolis than it does at Daytona with the restrictor plate format.  The restrictor plate format kind of changes how you race Daytona, the circumstances around it.

“That’s what kind of makes Indianapolis a little bit more special to me, is it’s more of what we do every week, more of I don’t want to say the traditional racing that we do week in, week out, if that’s at Charlotte, if that’s at Kansas, if that’s at Richmond, wherever.”

Though while the history means a lot, the victory also puts emphasis on how strong the No. 24 Axalta team is right now being led by Alan Gustafson. Confidence is at a premium as they’re already set for 10 race Chase for the Sprint Cup to begin.

“We had headed the direction of preparing for the Chase, trying to fine tune our program throughout the next six, seven races, put ourselves in good position,” Gustafson commented. “Not much has changed for us, though it’s a nice change over where we’d been the last couple years.  Not having to sweat our way into the Chase, we’re in solidly, and we can focus on performing well in those last 10.”

Though confidence is something that hasn’t always been there, noted by the seasons in which Gordon has struggled and had to claw his way into the Chase. Gustafson attributes the past to the lack of consistency, where as they have that this year and have consistently led the point standings this year.

“I think he’s in a good place in his life personally,” Gustafson added. “But I think he’s been there for a while.  I think all the work that we’ve put in, all the work that he’s put in, making it through the difficult times, putting ourselves in position this year, has energized him.”

This is a feeling that has been consistent, but now the difference now with Indianapolis victory is they have solidified themselves into Championship conversation with a pair of wins on the season.

“I think Indianapolis, we were the best car and were able to execute all day and win the race,” Gustafson reflected. “That gives us confidence and that gives us, you know, I don’t want to say added incentive, but just an added feel of ability and confidence in our ability, I guess I should say, in what we can do moving forward, maybe a little bit more than what Kansas did.”

Though while confidence is high, it could mean nothing as this year’s Chase format is totally new with the additions that NASCAR has made in elimination style competition over the 10 weeks. Right now, that isn’t on the mind of Gustafson, but rather doing all they can to do prepare for the Chase by continuing to make their program stronger each week.

“If something goes wrong, we have to have confidence in each other and belief in the team that we can overcome it and come back that next week,” Gustafson said. “You could be in a situation where it comes down to one race to advance.  You could be in a situation where you have to do it on points or have to do it by winning the race if you have some adversity the first couple races. I think you have to be able to bounce back and believe in what you’re doing.

“You know, I don’t want our success to be, A, we can’t get too confident for sure because there’s a lot of good race teams out there that are very, very capable.  And B, we have to stay very driven.  You have to stay very hungry. We’ve got to go in and race every race like it’s our last.”