Crew chief behind Jeff Gordon's drive for five

Mike Hembree | Special for USA TODAY Sports

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AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Alan Gustafson’s rose garden won’t get much attention this week.

Gustafson, crew chief for Jeff Gordon, is six days from the biggest race of his life – and one of the biggest races in the history of NASCAR. The sport of auto racing could see a singular moment Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the final race of the season as Gordon tries to win the Sprint Cup championship in what he is calling the final Cup race of his career.

Gustafson will be at the white-hot center of that quest.

In his fourth full season as Gordon’s crew chief and formerly atop the pit wagon for Kyle Busch and Mark Martin, Gustafson, 40, this week faces the sort of pressure few crew chiefs have addressed. A win – or a finish in front of the other three championship contenders (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr.) – would give Gordon a fifth Cup title in his last race. And Gustafson would forever carry that very visible feather in his cap.

This kind of week is why Gustafson sees magic in the growth and blooming of a rose. His backyard garden – with more than 100 roses -- is a form of escape.

“The manual labor – I don’t do that much any more [with the cars], so it’s pretty rewarding to be able to get out there, dig a hole, put a rosebush in it and look after an hour and say, ‘That’s what I did,’ ” Gustafson said. “When you’re here [in racing], it’s months. It’s not the instant gratification.

“So I like landscaping, working on my backyard. It’s kind of my oasis.”

It’s a world away from the maelstrom Gustafson will face this weekend as NASCAR assembles in south Florida to decide its three national series championships.

Gustafson said he’s approaching the weekend by trying to keep things normal, a difficult task considering the attention Gordon and everyone in his orbit has attracted since he won three races ago at Martinsville Speedway to earn a spot in the finals.

“You just look at the race, and you execute it and you do what you have to do to put ourselves in the best position to win,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a huge deal. It’s an amazing opportunity, but to me it’s about the opportunity to win Homestead and the championship.

“How big that is or isn’t in anybody else’s eyes really doesn’t influence me. It’s different, but it really isn’t different in my eyes from something I’ve worked for my whole life. You prepare your whole life for this, and you have to embrace that and do the best you can.”

Working his way up at Hendrick

Gustafson started those preparations while growing up in Ormond Beach, Fla., not far from Daytona International Speedway. He worked on friends’ race cars as a teen-ager and also signed on with a road-racing team before moving north to pursue work in NASCAR circles. He joined Hendrick Motorsports as a shock specialist in 2000, moved into a lead engineer role in 2002 and debuted as a crew chief with Busch in 2005.

Gustafson has worked with four of the best drivers in the sport's history – Terry Labonte, Busch, Martin and now Gordon.

He has learned things in all four situations, Gustafson said, including the concept that good things can come from bad times. That idea was illustrated in June when he and Gordon had a very public dispute over the team’s radio during a race at Pocono Raceway.

“I think we’re better because of it,” Gustafson said. “I’ve been in maybe two or three situations like that in my career with Jeff. Each time we’ve gone through that, it’s helped put it all on the table and we can get past it and move on.

“At the time, it’s not something you enjoy doing. But afterward it worked out better. And really that one was not one of the worst ones. I think it was very sensationalized, and that makes it seem worse than it is.”

Gustafson said the driver-crew chief relationship is complex.

“It’s like any other relationship you have in your life – it can be perfectly suited, but you lose your head one time and say something you can’t take back,” he said. “That’s some damage that you can’t come back from. Jeff kind of makes it easy because he’s very professional and he’s very straightforward, and he’s easy to communicate with even in tough situations. Other drivers I’ve worked with in the past made it a little more difficult because of the way they handle conflict. It’s a tough thing to do, for sure.”

'Confident, powerful leader'

Gustafson, who attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, brought an engineering background into the crew chief position. He then became a student of the other qualities needed to succeed in one of racing’s pressure positions.

“I think he has definitely had to work and hone his skills on how to be that confident, powerful leader,” Gordon said. “He has become extremely good at it, but I do think that’s probably something that was not as natural to him as the engineering.

“He has a tremendous work ethic and drive. That, to me, is what makes a great crew chief. When I think back to me and Ray (Evernham, Gordon’s first crew chief), or I look at other crew chiefs at Hendrick and in the garage, the ones that are just willing to sacrifice everything and put that kind of effort into it are the ones that are successful. That is what Alan does.”

This week, he does it on one of the sport’s biggest stages.

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