“Good? Sure, but it’s not where I want to be, no doubt.” Chase Elliott’s recent words highlight the epitome of his 2025 Cup Series season. There are a lot of good things to look up to – like Elliott being the only driver to score top 20 finishes consistently, or holding the 5th place in championship standings. However, for the 2020 Cup Series champion, the lack of a victory is growing increasingly tense.

That is why fans are furiously dissecting what could be going wrong. Yet there is a caveat here – Chase Elliott is a 7-time Most Popular Driver award winner, hence any criticism seems to automatically bounce off him and land on his closest colleague. However, now the tides are changing.

Chase Elliott is in the spotlight now

Well, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver has been riding a misery streak. It began in 2023 when a snowboarding accident compelled Chase Elliott to miss out on races, and on top of that, he faced a penalty for aggression. He missed the playoffs that year, so when he roared back to victory in Texas in April 2024, it looked like everyone’s favorite driver was back. Consistency, resilience, and excellence were all words in his dictionary. However, glory was not. We are now approaching the end of June 2025, and Elliott is yet to win again. So, fans’ automatic target has been Alan Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief for the past 10 years.

Criticism has shrouded the veteran HMS crew chief since 2023. This season, the pit road stumble at Kansas Speedway potentially cost Chase Elliott a win, thereby intensifying doubts about Alan Gustafson. However, now, a fan flipped the narrative on Reddit, bringing Elliott himself under scrutiny. They wrote, “Everyone talks about him being the ‘problem with Chase.’ But Chase is top 5 in points and is usually running well every week. Alan has done a good job on strategy, but they just can’t get over the edge to win races each and every week like before. But we are in a new car, and Chase himself has said that it’s harder to drive for him than the old one. So why is only Alan getting criticism? Why do we never see people say that maybe Chase is part of the issue too?”

Indeed, Chase Elliott has complained about the Next-Gen car’s difficulty several times. Despite excelling in 2022 when he scored 5 wins and the regular season title, it has been a downward trajectory since. In 2023, Elliott got into trouble, like a fuel mileage mishap in Watkins Glen. This year in Texas, Elliott could not capitalize on Gustafson’s two-tire strategy when he made a mistake running wide on a restart, lost track position, and was unable to recover.

Even NASCAR journalist Danielle Trotta defended Gustafson recently: “I continue to stand in the line that it’s not an Alan thing. Chase has said, this is a me thing. I have to figure out the feel of this race car. But if Chase Elliott fans, diehard fans, need someone to blame, they’re not gonna blame Chase, they’re gonna blame Alan.”

The NASCAR fanbase also chose to take a more logical stance for a change.

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Digging up logic in the debate

Well, the story about Alan Gustafson is nothing new. The crew chief has received fire for his actions before. In 2018, he landed a two-race suspension and a $50,000 fine after Chase Elliott’s car was found with an illegal rear window. That was the second penalty in the same year. What is more, Gustafson caught criticism when he was Jeff Gordon’s crew chief as well. There were many strategic errors in fuel mileage races. These past instances prompted a fan to highlight Gordon’s time more: “I can’t say crap about his time with Chase but he blew so many calls when he was with Jeff Gordon. Way too many.” However, Elliott’s 2025 season does not seem to be Gustafson’s fault. Hence, another fan said that Gustafson’s detractors are simply more biased: “Because your not allowed to hate Chase Elliott.”

Chase Elliott is hardly the only legendary driver faltering in the Next-Gen car. Kyle Busch is currently facing a two-year-long winless streak, with his finishes getting no better. Jimmie Johnson, a 7-time champion, could not score a single top 20 finish in 2024. Hence, one fan wrote: “I think Chase just may not be good in this car same is happening to Busch and it happened with Jimmie Johnson some drivers just aren’t built for some cars.”

Somebody else downplayed Chase Elliott’s talents compared to his star teammates. Presently, Elliott has led the fewest laps (95) among all HMS drivers. The fan wrote, “Not an Elliot fan, but he has the least winning speed of all of hendrick by far. I think that’s more of an issue of Elliott not pushing it, but it’s not a far jump to blame Gustafson for not providing fast cars or good strategy.” Another fan concluded that Alan Gustafson simply is not the problem. Elliott is just not visiting Victory Lane himself: “Scapegoat for the lack of wins.”

Clearly, the tides of criticism are tilting towards Chase Elliott himself now. The Hendrick Motorsports star needs to steer his ship in the right direction before losing his fans’ credence.