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Wow, it’s been a long ride for this Car Number Countdown to the Daytona 500 and we’re now down to the #5. The smoke in Daytona has cleared from a commanding Hendrick Motorsports performance in the Bud Shootout just a couple days ago. Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes a win in his very first race with his new team at Hendrick Motorsports. The entire Hendrick team ran strong and finished well with Jimmie Johnson in 3rd, Jeff Gordon 4th, and Casey Mears in 6th. It’s that 6th place finish by Casey Mears that I enjoyed. I think Casey’s average finish of 22nd on superspeedways will improve now that he’s yet again changed car numbers and crew chiefs. This time it’s within the Hendrick organization though as he takes over the #5 car and gains the crew chief who led that team to 4 wins in the last three years. I predict a much stronger performance for Casey Mears in 2008 and that much of that credit will belong to Alan Gustafson.

Stats for ALL Cup cars running the #5:

• Number of Races: 1,205
• Number of Wins: 34
• Number of Top 5s: 237
• Number of Top 10s: 453
• Number of Poles: 44
• Number of Drivers: 118

Spotlight Subject: Crew Chief Alan Gustafson

As I’ve worked through the Car Number Countdown to the Daytona 500 there have been several names in NASCAR history that keep coming up, such as the Wood Brothers and David Pearson to name a couple. Another name that I’ve seen during my searches is Henry “Smokey” Yunick, the legendary mechanic and car builder. I must say I was a bit surprised to see this legendary name from NASCAR history associated with the young Alan Gustafson. After all, Alan is only 32 years of age and has only been the crew chief for a Sprint Cup team since 2005. However, Alan grew up in the Daytona Beach area and actually worked as an apprentice in Smokey’s shop known as “The Best Damn Garage in Town.” He started out by working on Casey Yunick’s (Smokey’s grandson) go-karts and then moved up through other racing series such as Goody’s Dash, Late Model Stock Car, Craftsman Truck Series, and the Busch Series. By the year 2000 he was a mechanic inside the Hendrick organization.

At the end of the 2004 season Terry Labonte was retiring from racing and the #5 car would be getting a fresh “young gun” driver by the name of Kyle Busch. Alan Gustafson was pegged to be the crew chief and 2005 started off with a pole in only their second race together. Over the next three seasons Alan and Kyle would work together to have 4 wins, 30 top fives, and 51 top tens in only 108 races together. The end of the 2007 season though saw Kyle Busch being pushed out of Team Hendrick, though it was not for lack of performance on his part. No, he had 1 win and 20 top tens during the season which helped him to make the Chase. As a matter of fact, he made the Chase and finished in the top ten in season points for the last two years. However, as most anyone who is even remotely aware of NASCAR knows, Dale Earnhardt Jr. left the team his father founded and was joining Hendrick Motorsports. Someone had to go to meet NASCAR’s team number limits, and despite performing better than Casey Mears in the #25, Kyle was the mis-matched shoe in the closet. He just didn’t seem to click and blend in with the other Hendrick drivers, so he was released and would later sign to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. The question was, would Alan Gustafson go with him.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that people like working for Rick Hendrick. There’s a lot of loyalty there both in the hearts of the employees and the hearts of Rick Hendrick and the management team. Loyalty, hard work, and results will be rewarded at Hendrick Motorsports. Evidence of this can be see by looking at another Hendrick crew chief, Steve Letarte. Alan announced he would not be leaving with Kyle Busch to join Joe Gibbs Racing, but would instead stay on with Hendrick. Casey Mears would move from the #25 over to the #5 to replace Kyle Busch and Alan Gustafson would remain on as crew chief. After 656 races with the #25 (the first of which was the 1986 Daytona 500 with driver Tim Richmond) the #25 would run it’s final race for Rick Hendrick at the end of 2007.

While Casey isn’t the biggest star at Hendrick Motorsports, going into 2008 he certainly has the best shot he’s ever had for success. The media spotlight and focus will be so strong on his Hendrick teammates of Johnson, Gordon, and Earnhardt Jr. that he and Alan Gustafson very well may jump up and surprise everyone. I for one expect a great improvement in his performance now that he’s in the #5 and has Alan Gustafson on the pit box. If his run in the Bud Shootout is any indication, I’d say he’ll be a great dark horse at some tracks for your fantasy picks. I know I’m going to roll the dice on him and Alan Gustafson more than once this year in my fantasy teams.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under 50 Days to Daytona, Car Numbers, Countdowns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.