Imagine being two laps away from winning arguably the biggest race of your career. Now, imagine the caution coming out while you were a little more than three miles from a win in one of NASCARS Crown Jewels.

Then, your crew chief calls you down pit lane under that caution, essentially punting away any chance at a win. That stacked on top of a frustrating end to the last Cup Series Race when you were crashed while running second and having the best chance of a win if you don’t get wrecked.

The frustrations would boil over. That’s why Chase Elliott and his entire team were so nervous at the end of Thursday nights Alsco 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. With 27 to go, Elliott passed Kevin Harvick to reclaim the top spot again. What would go wrong next? That’s what Elliott and his crew chief Alan Gustafson were wondering.

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Luckily, nothing wrong wrong. A fluke race yellow never came and Elliott was celebrating his seventh career Cup victory. While Elliott stated the obvious that it’s not a Coca-Cola 600 win, it still felt good to get that monkey off his back.

For Gustafson, it ended a rough four days for him. When you’re the crew chief for NASCARS most popular driver, every decision you make is under a microscope. When you don’t win, it’s because the crew chief isn’t giving the driver the right cars — or worse yet, made a wrong decision to call his driver into the pit.

“It obviously wasn’t a great feeling [Sunday],” Gustafson said. “I don’t base my self‑worth on other people’s opinions or if I’m doing a good job based on what other people say, but certainly I’m a human being, too.

“And when you get that many rocks thrown at you, it doesn’t feel great. It was a long couple days, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to look past it and move on.”

On the surface Sunday, that’s what it appeared. It appeared that Gustafson didn’t trust Elliott on old tires, even with clean air. Gustafson, scoffed at that notion.

“I have the utmost confidence in him,” Gustafson said. “I think he’s the best driver out here, and he’s showing it. That situation was ‑‑ there’s a lot of factors that went into it, and our struggles earlier in the race probably influenced me more than I should have let it, and it didn’t work out.

“We’re also assuming that we stay out and we win the race, so it’s tough. It’s just a tough situation.”

Elliott, agreed saying that he didn’t see it that way at all and that he never lost confidence in Gustafson either. They were in a lose-lose situation on Sunday.

“It’s not his fault that the caution came out with two laps to go, and when you’re in a position like that you have to make a decision and stick with it,” Elliott said. “I’m not going to question him. I don’t fault him.

“It’s not his fault; it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to make a gut call and go with it, and heck, we drove back to third. I just don’t see how you can look back at that and say he did something wrong.”

Elliott said that as long as he has fast race cars every week, then that’s all that he can ask for. Gustafson, has given Elliott the best chances at winning. They can’t control circumstances outside of their team though.

“The biggest thing is if we can continue to put ourselves in position and give ourselves chances, and we do a good job at controlling the things that are in our control, that’s all we can ask for,” Elliott said.

“We can’t control when a caution comes out two laps to go, and you’re kind of in a lose‑lose situation there. We’ve got to keep doing things that are in our hands and keep doing those well.”