“I felt really good about Phoenix and obviously, you put these cars on the limit and then we failed inspection for something – I’m telling you, people will accuse me of lying – it was the most miniscule things that were not even on our radar and we failed twice for it and had to go to the back. I was worried, but I was still confident. Then the first 15 or 20 laps it was like, ‘Yeah, they’re in trouble.’ We just had gobs of pace.”
Crew chief Alan Gustafson
Editor’s note: This is the 11th in a 40-part series highlighting 40 of the greatest wins in the history of Hendrick Motorsports to finish its 40th anniversary season. A new installment will be released each day from Nov. 22, 2024 through New Year’s Eve. Votes were taken from Hendrick Motorsports employees as well as representatives of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Racing Insights with all unanimous selections being ushered in automatically. The remaining wins were deliberated and decided upon by a small panel.
CONCORD, N.C. - It seemed like it was a hurdle they just couldn't get past.
In the seasons leading up to 2020, Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team fell short in the final run to the championship, missing out on a chance to race for a title. Specifically, Texas Motor Speedway and the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Round of 8 was a struggle.
“For two or three years in a row, we were really good and just couldn’t make that jump to get to Phoenix (Raceway),” crew chief Alan Gustafson said. “At Phoenix, we always ran good with Chase too but we couldn’t get to the championship because of Texas. We had always struggled at Texas in the Round of 8.”
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But that 2020 season, one of immense uncertainty, seemed different. Not even a global pandemic, the loss of practice and qualifying time or social distancing could stop this bunch.
“So, we go to Texas again and again, it’s our Achilles Heel," Gustafson said. "It was a rain out race, it took forever. I did gas only or something and we had a tire issue, we go laps down and then the race rains out. But we knew we had really good cars and he was really in good form and the pit crew was in good form and we go to Martinsville and have the best car and we were ready to go at Phoenix.”
Gustafson may have undersold just how special the Martinsville race victory was. His No. 9 team overcame an issue on pit road during the final stage and would go on to score the victory, locking Elliott into the Championship 4. Only Phoenix stood in the way of the sport's biggest prize.
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| RACE FACTS | |
|---|---|
| Date: | Nov. 8, 2020 |
| Venue: | Phoenix Raceway |
| Winner: | Chase Elliott |
| Hendrick Motorsports win: | No. 263 |
| Laps led by winner: | 153 |
| Starting position of winner: | 1st, started at the rear due to a penalty |
| Top 10: | 1. Chase Elliott; 2. Brad Keselowski; 3. Joey Logano; 4. Denny Hamlin; 5. Jimmie Johnson; 6. Ryan Blaney; 7. Kevin Harvick; 8. Matt DiBenedetto; 9. William Byron; 10. Martin Truex Jr. |
| Did you know? | This was Jimmie Johnson's final race while driving full-time and his last start with Hendrick Motorsports. As a tribute, all of the Hendrick Motorsports entries used his iconic yellow on their numbers. |
However, championship weekend got off to a rocky start. During technical inspection, Elliott's car failed twice, sending him to the rear of the field for the championship deciding event. Despite starting well behind his competitors, the group remained determined.
“I felt really good about Phoenix and obviously, you put these cars on the limit and then we failed inspection for something – I’m telling you, people will accuse me of lying – it was the most miniscule things that were not even on our radar and we failed twice for it and had to go to the back,” Gustafson recalled. “I was worried, but I was still confident. Then the first 15 or 20 laps it was like, ‘Yeah, they’re in trouble.’ We just had gobs of pace.”
Throughout stage one, he closed in on the leaders and ultimately settled for third.
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Stage two brought a similar outcome. Although he had earned the point position under the green flag, Brad Keselowski made his way around the No. 9 entry to close out the second segment. Final adjustments needed to make Elliott's Chevrolet just a little bit quicker for the final stage.
After taking the lead back to begin the final segment, Elliott briefly lost the lead in the pit cycle to Joey Logano, who pitted slightly before Elliott. Ultimately, the Dawsonville, Georgia, native was able to pass his rival for good with 42 laps to go and drive into the Arizona sunset to score his first championship.
But for Gustafson, the moment was a full-circle moment in his career, one that he was not sure would come again.
“I had gotten to the point where it was like, ‘I don’t know if this is ever going to happen,’ because it just seemed like everything was working against us,” Gustafson said of winning his first, elusive championship. “I can tell you 2015 (with Jeff Gordon) was big to me. In ’15, I didn’t feel like I did enough. I felt like I left some on the table and I told myself, when I get my shot again, I’m not leaving anything on the table. And we went out there full kill and that was huge. It was huge for I think all of us. The majority of that team had been together for a long time. Chase and everybody, it was a great accomplishment.”
