Chase Elliott apologizes to Alan Gustafson after botching NASCAR strategy

Chase Elliott snapped a 42-race winless streak at the Texas Motor Speedway a season ago. On Sunday, May 4, the former NASCAR Cup Series winner saw his current 37-race drought increase after fumbling his race strategy. 

Joey Logano took the checkered flag in the Wurth 400, meaning the 2024 Cup Series champion broke his own 2025 victory donut (and all the more sweet considering his disqualification in Talladega a week prior). 

When the 29-year-old was P2 restarting, Elliott listened to his veteran chief Alan Gustafson, who he defended to Express U.S. Sports last week, and attempted a two-tire pit strategy. This strategy involves only changing the right-sided tires on a car in an effort to avoid dropping too much track position. 

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It didn't go to plan: within two minutes of returning to the track, Elliott dropped eight positions. He made a mistake running wide on a restart, lost track position and was unable to recover. 

"Really sorry dude, I bottomed out trying to get back to the outside of him," he told Gustafson on the radio."It was a great call. Definitely the move."

Elliott finished 16th on the day and took a slight tumble down the Drivers' Championship standings. Still, three top-five finishes and six total top-10 placements leave the 29-year-old sitting fourth overall. 

"We're just chipping away," he said in a midweek interview on Sirius XM in how he and his team aim to improve as 2025 continues. "We have a great group and we show up to race each week with the mindset of trying to be just a little better."

"I anticipate we're gonna continue to do that throughout the year. Keep our heads down, stay focused. I think we're very capable of getting to where we need to go,"

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Short of a Daytona 500 victory, Elliott has already accomplished everything there is to accomplish in the sport. The 2014 Xfinity Champion as a teenager was already named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers. 

Since his 2020 Cup Victory, he produced consuecitve fourth-place finishes before sinking to 17th in 2023. He rebounded slightly a season ago, finishing seventh. Elliott has just one victory on the circuit since 2022. 

He'll look to secure a long-overdue win next weekend in the 2025 Advent Health 400 at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.