"They wanted my scalp": NASCAR Insider calls out "very angry" Chase Elliott fans

At Richmond, Chase Elliott ended up with his first DNF of the season. Following the race, NASCAR Insider Jeff Gluck spoke about how he's been hounded by Elliott's fans for his suggestion regarding his crew chief.

During a recent episode of the Teardown podcast, Gluck revealed that in the leadup to the race, he had defended Alan Gustafson online. Because of this, he faced a flood of Chase Elliott fans 'yelling' at him for everything bad that happened to their favorite driver for every single thing which they believe is Gustafson's fault.

"Chase Elliott fans were tweeting at me like I was Alan Gustafson or something like they wanted my scalp. These people are very, very angry. Because I defended Alan Gustafson," Gluck said. [48:00]

He once again applauded Gustafson's call in the Richmond race before the #9 faced the unfortunate incident on the track. Gluck pointed out the #9 crew chief saving the set of tires like Ryan Preece, a driver who was in contention towards the end.

"They had an extra set and then they used them and they were coming through the field with Hocevar and Jones. Hocevar made it through but Elliott and Jones got caught in that wreck. Elliott almost made it through but Kyle Busch tagged him and they were going to finish top 10 in that stage. But they were like, 'Oh, this is Alan's fault. He was back there with the strategy. I told you,'" he elaborated.

This left Gluck confused considering it was Kyle Busch who wrecked Elliott but the blame was put on Gustafson for the strategy.

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Chase Elliott looks back on his first DNF of the season

Following his first DNF result of the season, Chase Elliott looked back on what went wrong with him at Richmond. After the early exit owing to an incident that happened on lap 199, Elliott claimed he and drivers around him stacked up in the wreck, adding that he believed Busch wasn't aware he was coming on the bottom.

"Really awkward. We were kind of done wrecking so I hate that. Had the wreck missed, I thought, and was just trying to get by the last of it there at the end," he said in an interview with Frontstretch.

In the last couple of races, Chase Elliott hasn't finished inside the top 20. It's worth mentioning because before his 26th place finish at Watkins Glen, Elliott's last finish outside the top 20 came at Las Vegas in October 2024.

This meant that until Glen, he hadn't finished outside the top 20 even once, scoring one win, six top 5 finishes and five top 10 finishes.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see if Chase Elliott bounces back in the last remaining race of the regular season at Daytona ahead of the playoffs.