It’s not Chase Elliott that did it, it was his crew: Another things comes to light about crew at Texas

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, had something huge to smile about at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend. He was back in victory lane after going winless in the Cup Series in 42 races dating back to a victory at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 2, 2022.

In recent weeks, Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson have been communicating well and their team has been performing well on pit road. So much so that they pulled off a record four-tire pit stop at Texas at 8.49 seconds. It’s the fastest four-tire stop in NASCAR’s 76-year history.

“I think just our performance over the last month, or maybe two, has done more than anything,” Elliott said. “I mean, I think obviously these races are hard to win. They seem like they get harder, at least for me. They continuously get harder over time.

“I’ve just been really proud of our group for sticking together because I’m sure a lot of you guys (in the media) have been around the sport long enough to understand and know that when you have a couple bad years, a period of time that things aren’t going well, it is so easy to jump ship and to start bailing out on one another. I think that the win’s great, all that stuff is fantastic, but I’m truthfully most proud of the journey and the group of people that we have climbed back up together with. We’ve made each other better. They push me to be a better driver and a better person.”

The closeness that translates to success on the track starts with the driver and crew chief, the place where personal and professional chemistry is the strongest. If things are clicking nicely there, communication in the heat of battle comes more naturally.

“I’m just very fortunate that I am surrounded by the type of people that we can all be open and honest with one another, push each other to be better. Even when it might be something that you don’t necessarily want to hear, it’s well-received. That’s growth. That’s improvement. That’s being mature adults,” Elliott said.

Millions of dollars are spent within teams and on race cars each season. Still, if everyone isn’t on the same page, the results will show in the form of bad performances on pit road and on the track.

Elliott has had his share of triumphs with 19 career Cup Series victories since joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2015. He also won the Cup Series championship in 2020, just as his father, Bill Elliott, did in 1988. There have been disappointments, as in a few times of being in contention to win another championship but falling just short in the closing races of previous seasons.

Still, the No. 9 crew had taken the good with the bad, built on positive performances and learned from their mistakes.

“I think we just have a special group,” Elliott said. “Everybody’s clicking and working for each other. I think that starts with Alan and his leadership. He’s been doing it for a long time. I’ve been doing it a long time, but he’s been doing it a lot longer than me. It’s nice to have that experience to lean on. He’s pretty much seen it all throughout his career. That’s a nice thing to lean on.”

Gustafson has worked with many drivers at Hendrick Motorsports, including Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin, to name a few. He has seen many scenarios unfold en route to collecting 39 career Cup Series wins since becoming a crew chief in 2005 with Kyle Busch.

“…I feel like he’s performed really well,” Gustafson said of Elliott. “I think sometimes you can get in a little bit of a hole. You just have to fight, right? That’s the biggest thing I’m most proud of him and the team for, is just continuing to fight through it, make it happen.

“He’s a young kid. You have to learn. You just have to grind through it…everybody goes through ebbs and flows. Whoever you want to call successful, (Martin) Truex, Denny (Hamlin), Kyle (Larson), Kyle Busch, everybody has those ups and downs. I think just having the strength to battle through it and persevere is key, and he’s done that.”

It’s often been said wins breed wins. If that’s true, Elliott is set to win more races in 2024.

Mick Schumacher’s second appearance in the Alpine Hypercar wasn’t exactly a happy one. Even before he got into the car

Mick Schumacher’s second appearance in the Alpine Hypercar wasn’t exactly a happy one. Even before he got into the car, everything was running smoothly.

In his second race in the WEC endurance series, Mick Schumacher suffered a bitter setback. With the Alpine Hypercar, the 24-year-old and his teammates couldn’t get past 16th place.

Mick Schumacher could n’t really do much because a collision at the start threw Schumi Jr. and his teammates far back. The Alpine trio therefore remained without points in Imola.

Mick Schumacher: Hopes in Imola are quickly gone
The 6h of Imola started very badly for Mick Schumacher and his colleagues Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre. The Alpine trio only landed in 18th place in qualifying. Things got even worse at the start.

+++ Mick Schumacher: New option opens up – change to another racing series? +++

Vaxiviere, who took over the start, caused an accident in the first corner. This not only gave the team a 60-second penalty, but also damaged the car. It took two laps before the car could get back on the track. Everything was already over long ago.

So it wasn’t anything more than a test drive under racing conditions for Mick Schumacher when he got into the car. In total, he sat in the Alpine Hypercar for three hours and completed a total of 102 laps.

Two highlights: First Spa, then Le Mans
Mick Schumacher also missed out on the points in the Alpine in the second race. At the start in Qatar, the Alpine trio ended up in eleventh place. The WEC continues on May 11th with a six-hour race on the legendary track in Spa-Francorchamps. The big highlight follows on the 15th-16th. June is when the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on the agenda.

Mick Schumacher is still hoping for a cockpit in Formula 1. He actually wanted to get himself back into the game through good performances in the WEC. This has not yet been achieved.

The Toto Wolf-Hamilton marriage appears destined for a messy divorce

Lewis Hamilton has endured a difficult start to his final Formula 1 season within the Mercedes organisation – and it could get even worse as the campaign tapers on.

Lewis Hamilton’s start to his final season with the Mercedes squad could not have commenced in a worse way and it seems to be ever clearer that there will be no successful swan song to see out arguably the greatest driver/team pairing in Formula 1 history.

Mercedes has endured various struggles across the last two seasons and it appears no closer to reeling in Red Bull after the opening rounds of the current campaign.

Hamilton’s best grand prix result came at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, where he crossed the finish line in seventh.

The following four rounds have consisted of a trio of ninth-place results and a non-finish in Australia, adding up to the Briton’s worst start to a season in his entire career.

And it could get even worse from here.

Bump back down to reality
Hamilton’s gloomy start to the season was given a hint of a breather during last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix as he qualified on the front row for the sprint race, before finishing the shorter outing in second place.

But the brief glimmer was not enough to diminish what has been a dismal few weeks, and the seven-time world champion was bumped back down to reality soon after he crossed the line in second, as he qualified towards the back of the grid for the grand prix.

Hamilton’s issues over one-lap this year have been apparent in the fact he has out-qualified team-mate George Russell just once this season, while he is yet to take the chequered flag ahead of his compatriot.

There was a strange exchange in China when Hamilton commented that his set-up went in a very different direction to Russell’s – a claim that the latter refuted.

Whatever truly occurred and whatever is behind Hamilton’s ongoing woes behind the wheel, nothing has swayed Hamilton from voicing his desire to see out his Mercedes tenure on a high note and provide his maximum effort until the very end – but just how realistic is such a scenario?

Phasing out
Should Hamilton be confined to competing at the lower end of the top 10, a sense of resignation and a switch in focus could soon become a reality for him.

While there is no reason to question his commitment, Hamilton is moving to pastures new next year with a lucrative move to the Ferrari squad to pair himself alongside Charles Leclerc in what is one of the biggest driver transfers in F1 history.

Very soon, the realities of the decision will kick in and Hamilton will start to feel like something an outsider when he is phased out of meetings over the 2025 car.

Such policies are traditional when any driver is leaving a team for a rival, but Mercedes has been his home, his nature even, for so long that it will create an unnatural scenario for him when he is not central to discussions.

Throw in the prospect of circulating far away from the front-running competition and the situation could soon get uncomfortable for Hamilton.

The circumstance will soon turn into a frighteningly unfamiliar one for the 39-year-old.

It could very well be the case that Hamiton hopes his final Mercedes outing comes sooner rather than later – as emotional as it will be, it will bring an end to the agonising period that looks set to lie ahead.