Gustafson takes blame for Gordon losing Homestead

"That's on me," Gustafson said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "It was a mistake that I made."

During the 11th caution at Lap 249, Gordon stayed out with Denny Hamlin while other lead-lap cars came to pit road.

"I tried to keep the track position, and I felt like that was going to be the highest percentage decision," Gustafson said. "It ended up not being (the case) so that put us behind unfortunately."

After relinquishing the lead to Hamlin at Lap 253 and the 12th caution flew at Lap 256, "Jeff felt like there the last time that we weren't in a very good position to succeed so we made a decision to come pit," Gustafson said. "So really the first stop when we and Denny and a few other cars stayed out, that was the one that really hurt us.

"I think we had the best car and really the team deserved to win the race so it was a bad decision on my part and I'm going to learn from it and just try to improve moving forward."

In his fourth season with Gordon and his 10th season as a crew chief at Hendrick, Gustafson's No. 24 team led the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in top-10 finishes and joined Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Austin Dillon as the only cars to run all 36 points races without a DNF.

Gordon's four wins were his most in a season since 2007, when he finished second in the points. His win total, top-five finishes (14), top-10s (23) and poles (3) were the most in his four seasons with the 39-year-old crew chief. And Gustafson had his best year since his runner-up points performance in 2009 with Mark Martin.

"As much as we're on top of the points and as well as we ran -- statistically all of the categories that we dominated -- it makes you feel good," Gustafson said. "Winning my first Brickyard 400, that was the race and still is the race of all races to me and being able to win at Indianapolis and put my name and this team's name and Jeff's name in the record books for the fifth time for him was really special. That's something that I'm always going to remember and a lot of the triumphs."

But, in addition to his mistake at Homestead-Miami, Gustafson said he regrets not qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

"I'm still not at peace with what happened in that final segment," Gustafson said. "I don't think that we got by any stretch of the imagination what we deserved.

"If I would say one thing about our Chase that I could go back and do over, it would have been to win either Martinsville and/or Phoenix, and we were second at both places. Texas, in my opinion, we had won and some circumstances out of our control kind of crept in there, but that's the biggest thing."

Gustafson acknowledged that Ryan Newman and the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing team advanced through the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup without wins, "but I would not want to say to myself I'm going to follow the path the 31 took because I think if you replay that 50 times over the circumstances don't come out your way the majority of the time," Gustafson said.

" ... the thing that I would have done different is just be good enough to win. When you can win, you can transfer, and that's ultimately what Kevin did. I think we were actually tied for points right after Phoenix but he won the race and he was able to transfer and win the championship so I think that's the key."

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