DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The winner of the Daytona 500 is never decided until the last lap.
The goal of the crew chiefs is to put their NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the best position possible to add their names to the history books together as champions of the “Great American Race” on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Daytona 500 starting lineup | Full Daytona schedule
Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and driver Chase Elliott, helped lead Elliott to the win in Thursday night’s Duel at Daytona qualifying race. Competitors used the word “sketchy” to describe some of the action in the multicar draft that evening. Elliott concurred by noting his car was “unstable” at times throughout his 60-lap qualifying race.
But conditions have continued to change throughout the weekend, particularly on aging asphalt that has given the pavement more character in recent visits since the track was last fully repaved in 2010. Gustafson has paid keen attention to those nuances this week, leading to extra thought in setting up Elliott’s Chevrolet.
“I think the track is going to be much more difficult to get a hold of, and handling will be a much bigger consideration,” Gustafson said in a Friday morning media session. “We want our car obviously (to) drive really good so that doesn’t impact us – as little as possible. And ultimately, I think track position is going to be key, and where you have your car, the better off it’s going to drive, no matter how good your car is.”
The most prevalent piece of the puzzle, though, remains fuel strategy.
Managing fuel savings throughout early green-flag runs has become a staple of superspeedway racing in the Cup Series, an unavoidable part of the equation in the 200-lap marathon. That balance between making speed and conserving energy weighs heavy on the minds of those atop the pit box.
“What do you do? How do you call it right to be in a perfect position at all the perfect times?” Gustafson said. “So I think you’ve got to race hard and be in as good a position as you can, and in front of as (many) people as possible so that you’re in control of your own destiny. So that’s what we’ll try to do, and get our car driving really well. I mean, I’d love for cars to drive super bad to where it was more of a handling race, but they’re so close, I think everybody’s gonna probably suffer from the same issues.”
That math problem permeates the Cup garage, trying to solve for the best path toward track position while trying not to sacrifice fuel as teams reach for a particular lap target.
Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford has been in the mix all week, finishing fourth in his Duel qualifying race to earn a ninth-place starting spot and posting the third-fastest lap in Saturday’s final practice session of 19 participants. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins knows the game well, leading Austin Cindric to the 2022 Daytona 500 victory four years ago. And as fuel savings have become inevitable, the need to have a “feel” for how the race is developing has as well.
“A lot of it’s just situational as to where you wind up, right?” Bullins told NASCAR.com Saturday afternoon. “Like we’re starting the race with decent track position, so that makes your decisions a little bit different because you want to try to keep your track position. So if you’re in the back already, naturally you’re going to save more fuel and try to save more fuel. So a little bit of it depends on where you’re running. Obviously, so far, the last few years here especially in the stages […] the last group to pit (under green) winds up at the front. So you’re trying to save enough fuel to be one of the last groups to pit and just see where it all shakes out.”
RELATED: What to Watch for in 68th Daytona 500 | How to watch on Sunday
Having the right partners to move through the field when go-time rears its head is also imperative. That should be good news for the Keselowski crew. Their RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece each suffered damage in Thursday’s Duels. Buescher’s No. 17 team opted for its backup car, while Preece’s No. 60 team repaired and replaced parts of its primary car. But the RFK Racing trio led the fastest speeds in final practice, with Preece pacing Buescher and Keselowski.
“Obviously, when you get a backup car out or have to make a lot of repairs like the 60 did, you’ve got to do some work to get back to where you were,” Bullins said. “But I feel like those guys have done a really good job of getting those cars ready to go. Should be fine.”
Competition has never been closer throughout the Cup Series. That includes the variances in vehicle designs. With history and prestige on the line again, the crew chiefs hold the keys to finding whatever edge can best help their drivers.
“You have to find some advantage some way, right?” Gustafson said. “And then I think we all learned, through the rules and the cars becoming extremely similar, that you had to get advantage another way besides what at the time was conventional, and that was saving fuel and jumping people on pit stop cycles, right? Well, that came out of necessity of the rules package, and I just don’t see where you unlearn that.
“My job is to exploit whatever potential opportunity we have. And this is it right now.”
