Secrets to Gustafson’s success (Yahoo! Sports)
March 12, 2010
In his first season as Mark Martin’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson nearly helped pull off what no one else has been able to do in 28 years – help Martin to the first championship of his career.
While they didn’t win the title, they did finish second, won five races and collected a season-high seven poles. Not bad for their first season together.
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Gustafson talked to Yahoo! Sports about being paired with Martin, one of his boyhood idols, as well as what it’s like to work and share information with his colleagues at Hendrick Motorsports.
1. Y! Sports: Is the perception that most people have about what a crew chief actually does – that you’re the brains behind setting up the car – entirely accurate?
Gustafson: There’s a lot more that a crew chief has to do. There are so many things that go into a racing a car besides the engineering and the things that are outwardly obvious. The coordination of pit stops, the travel, the people, the personnel at the shop, managing personalities – managing all that stuff – budgets, sponsors, being able to represent a company in the way and fashion they want to be represented, not only as a crew chief, but the crew chief is responsible for the whole team.
So, it’s a lot more detailed and elaborate than [just building race cars]. I think that’s what we all got into the sport for and what we love about it, but that’s just one part of it. In today’s big business, that’s just one part of being successful. You’ve got to be able to do a lot of other things also and manage those successfully to have the total package.
2. Y! Sports: Growing up, Mark Martin was one of your idols. What was your reaction when you learned you would be working with him and how long did it take you mentally to shake off the hero worship to where you just got to work like you would with any other driver?Gustafson: I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with him when he drove our Nationwide car in 2007. So, that was a nice dress rehearsal, so to speak, for me because I was able to work with him and deal with some of those issues and figure out where some of our weak points were.When you’re dealing with a guy who you’ve looked up to your whole life and have a tremendous amount of respect for, sometimes you get in stressful situations where we do disagree and I’ve got to be assertive or stand my ground and that was something I was able to work through a little bit when he drove our [Nationwide] car. When I found out he was going to drive our Cup car, obviously I was very ecstatic. I don’t think you could ask for anything more than having Mark Martin drive your car. But it was revealed so early in June or July [of 2008] – we knew so long we were able to prepare quite a bit.There are still times where you get into situations where it’s a little tougher with Mark because I as well as everybody does have so much respect for him, which is a good thing. But you don’t want to do anything at all to make him think you don’t think that he’s one of the greatest drivers ever. So you just got to work through that.3. Y! Sports: What’s something about Mark Martin that you’ve learned since working with him? Gustafson: There are a lot of things that you learn, but his passion, drive and determination for the sport is incredible. It’s something that you know is there, but when you work with him it’s really, really obvious – how much he really enjoys this sport and how dedicated he is to it.I think the best way to illustrate that is he gets soooo nervous – nervous may not be the best word, but butterfly-ish and giddy before a race. He gets very intense and has the nerves and you think to yourself, “Man, this guys has run Sprint Cup cars for how long, how many races, has won so many you would think after time it would be just another day at the office.” But it isn’t to him. He cares so much about it and he has that passion and gets those butterflies, and it’s really cool to see that.4. Y! Sports: The success you two are having on the track is all good now, but early in 2009 things weren’t going so well. Did you ever have a moment where you doubted yourself and what got you guys through to the point where you almost won the championship?Gustafson: I didn’t doubt myself or the team or Mark. But after we had so many successive part failures or issues or blown tires or crashes in row, you just wonder, “Man, what do I need to do different? We’ve got the speed; we’re just not getting the results. Are we missing something here? Are we trying too hard? Are we not trying hard enough? Are we too tense? What is it?” I think the saving grace was I knew how hard I was working, how hard the team was working, how hard Mark was working and how good the cars were on the track. Ultimately things can’t not go your way forever. The odds are going to change sooner or later, and they did and we got a couple good top-10 finishes under our belt and then we got rolling. We got a win, then another win and basically put ourselves in good position.But the other frustrating thing about last year was as we were making huge strides up the points we’d have a bad race, like at Talladega where we wreck on the fourth lap and finish last. Then you dig your way out of that and go to Daytona and the same thing – I think we got wrecked on Lap 7 and finished almost last. That just sort of knocks you back.So we had to continuously overcome that. But the hard work of the team and all of us believing in each other, that’s the key. We all respect each other; we all believe in each other. And we knew, hey man, no matter what happens we can make it through it.Fortunately we did. We fell a little bit short, but all in all we overcame a lot and I think we accomplished a lot of good things.5. Y! Sports: We hear about teams sharing information. How does that work at Hendrick Motorsports and are there ever times when you figure something out and you’re thinking to yourself, “I really don’t want to share that?” Gustafson: We’ve got a very detailed database within our organization where we keep track of our cars, our setups, our engineering information and that is readily available to all the crew chiefs. There are certain levels of permission that you can have to the availability of that information. For the crew chiefs, it’s wide open. They have 100-percent access. For the most part, the race engineers do also. Our race engineers meet every week. The crew chiefs meet every week. We meet at the track every week. We really are the same – one for all and all for one. We are the same team regardless of the numbers on the side of the cars. You can only type so much, so you have to have that good communication between the teams where guys won’t be afraid to get out from behind the desk and walk over next door or walk over to your teammate and say, “Hey, what’s the deal with this or how does this go on?” And that all works because of A) Mr. Hendrick’s plan and vision and B) the respect that we all have for each other top to bottom.I’ve been in situations here where it didn’t work very well at all. But you’ve got to force that. It’s all gotta start [with communication]. And Mr. Hendrick is very adamant about that. There is 100-percent open-book policy.Yeah, there have been times when I’m like, “Man, I don’t want to give this to Chad [Knaus] or Jimmie [Johnson] because we know how hard they are to beat already.” But, I would rather see Hendrick Motorsports as a whole succeed and the thing that will always steer you the right way.That thought [of not sharing] crosses your mind, but you don’t ever act on it. You know also that you don’t want to burn a bridge where you can’t get information back, because our teammates are pretty good also. Once one person does it – holds something back – that creates a lot of issues.6. Y! Sports: You guys all have the same equipment, you share the same notes. So what is it about Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus that makes them just a little bit better than everyone else?Gustafson:If I had the answer I’d have a bigger trophy in my office right now. Mine’s a little smaller than theirs. I will say that the time they have had together is very important. That is one thing that the 5 team, we’re a little behind them on.It took them a little while to get it exactly right, and hopefully the experience the 5 team has had together will help us be stronger in 2010.But, they’re incredible. I have the utmost respect for Jimmie and Chad and all those guys over there. It’s amazing what they can accomplish. I’ve seen it first hand. We were parked next to them basically the whole Chase and they were very good, and they were just able to pull it out in a few distinct circumstances. I look at Lowe’s, for example. That was one place where we gave up, I felt, a lot of points. And then we had our Talladega issue. Obviously [Johnson] had his Texas issue, which kind of offset. But I think at Lowe’s, is one place that sticks out in my mind where if we could have – they won the race; we finished 17th because we had issues – if we could have overcome that and had a good finish, that would have made it a lot closer.But they’re very good. Their chemistry is great. They’re both very, very driven. The whole team is very driven.7. Y! Sports: As a crew chief and as crew members, does it tick you off when you see something happen like we did with the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski deal knowing you guys are going to be the ones fixing the cars? Gustafson: Very frustrated. We’ve been through this. I went through this this past weekend. We had a tough, tough day, clawed our way back. With the green-white-checker, we’re going to have at least a top-10 finish and then we get in an accident. And that happens, right. I mean, even at that you’re very frustrated, but you accept it as part of the sport. You understand that that can happen and it will happen regularly.But, when it’s that intentional, that’s a little tougher to swallow. It’s a little harder to just shrug that off. When you’re near the finish line and you’re running I don’t know where [Keselowski] was running, but I think he was in sixth place or something like that, and that was by far the best run they’ve had and they’re trying to turn their season around, yeah, that is really, really frustrating.That’s going to be hard to turn the other cheek for those guys. That’s ultimately what they’ve got to do. They can’t focus on the issues that happened at the race track. They’ve got to focus on getting their cars ready and right. But there are huge ramifications from that. Obviously you’ve got to work hard, but now you’ve got to work harder to have to fix the car, and now that extra time at the shop is time away from your family, and on and on and on down the road. 8. Y! Sports: When you’re not at the shop, what are you doing for fun? Gustafson: I’ve got two boys (ages 12 and 3) and we hang out and get in a lot of trouble together. That’s the biggest thing I like to do and have the most fun. We’re pretty active outside and my older boy is active in a lot of sports, so like to do that. My youngest is always running around getting into something. When the weather’s good we like to stay around the house and play around outside and do whatever we can.I’ve got a passion for cars, obviously, so that consumes some time that I have away from racing, with street cars that I have and like to play with and mess around with. But I’m pretty boring besides racing. So there’s not a whole lot else that goes on.9. Y! Sports: What are you going to do during the off weekend?Gustafson: We’re not sure yet. We’ve kicked around a few options. Maybe go to the Ashville Zoo or the Atlanta Aquarium. I’m not sure if we’ll do either. Just be at home and have some fun. We might venture out and find something fun to do.9 ½ The one thing I want fans to know about me is … Gustafson: That I’m just a regular guy who loves racing, who loves my job and that I work real hard at it. You know, at the end of the day you just want to be remembered as a guy who was very tough to compete against and does things the right way and does a good job at it and, ultimately, a guy that the people who work for you like. That’s one thing that is very important to me. You may not be the nicest guy, but at the end of the day they’ll say, “Man, that is a hard-working guy who’s always treated me fair.” That’s biggest thing.
Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.