CONCORD, N.C. -- Alan Gustafson has high hopes for this weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway given the No. 9 team’s and Hendrick Motorsports’ record at the 1-mile track.
Chase Elliott’s crew chief has been hitting the books as his crew prepares for the 13th race of the season. How the Cup Series season is structured with one-day events has proven to be an obstacle crew chiefs and race teams have had to work around, but Gustafson is grateful to go off of past finishes at the track.
“At Dover, we certainly rely a lot on our past history and notes from there,” Gustafson said. “Not having practice last year, you got to go off the race and use that information as much as possible."
While Elliott has yet to win a race this season, his track record at Dover indicates the 25-year-old should do well at the venue. He has one win from October 2018, plus seven top-five finishes, which are his most top-fives at a single track.
On his end, Gustafson has called 32 races at "the Monster Mile" and has two wins, 16 top-five finishes - five of which were runner-up results - 18 top-10s and 592 laps led with five different drivers.
“Now we’re going back to a similar aero package we had in ’18, so our success there and the race we won will be something we look into and try to use as much as possible,” Gustafson said. “We’ll lean on that stuff pretty heavily and lean on our experience here last year and see if we can put it all together.”
Gustafson and Elliott also have Kyle Larson to rely on, who secured a win at Dover in October 2019. Teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman also have done well at the track, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, at the Delaware venue in the second race of the doubleheader last season.
Overall, the four Hendrick Motorsports teammates have a combined two wins, 17 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s at Dover.
Tune in on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1 to see Elliott and the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers try to secure a record-extending 21 wins for the organization at Dover International Speedway.