William Byron, Rudy Fugle and Team 24 put Las Vegas behind them and focus on Talladega
CONCORD, North Carolina – According to crew chief Rudy Fugle, there’s no point crying over crashed race cars.
And at this time of year, we don’t have time either.
Unquestionably, Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway presented an unfortunate set of circumstances for the No. 24 Chevrolet team. Driver William Byron kept his car firmly in the top 3-5 all day, winning the first stage and finishing third in the second stage. As the final segment moved closer to the conclusion, Byron was at the front of the pack, battling with teammate Kyle Larson for the top spot and a potential victory to lock into the 4th NASCAR Cup Series championship.
But before Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet could see the checkered flag, Byron was caught up in a crash that wasn’t his fault, ending his day, relegating the team to a 36th-place finish and putting the team, which spent the majority of the season atop the points standings, 15 markers below the playoff line with two races remaining in the round.
Byron used the word “devastated” in his post-race interviews. Even Tuesday, as Fugle appeared on SiriusXM for a radio interview, the disappointment was still evident. And yet, Fugle said the team only had one option:
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“It sucks. Super crazy and disappointed. Devastated in the moment, but this time of year you have to punch the clock last week Sunday night and Monday morning, when the plane lands you have to move forward and try to build another winning race car. That’s what we started doing yesterday on a short sleep and we started again today. That’s all we can do.”
In a vacuum, this next-race mentality is certainly a beneficial mentality to adopt when the weeks and races – 36 of the points-paying variety in all – come thick and fast. But there’s also reasoning behind it and as Fugle points out, with a championship still on the line, any other approach would be a disservice to everyone involved.
“We have been working hard since January 2 of this year,” Fugle explained. “Since the playoffs started, I can count on one hand how many days off I’ve had and that affects everyone on this team and everyone on this campus. So if you let something that’s already happened affect your mindset and potentially ruin the last three weeks of your season – we have 14 and a half days of getting the race cars ready to go to the track and 19 and a half days of our season and if you don’t make it (to Championship 4), your season ends seven days shorter – if you let that happen, you’ll ruin your entire year.
“And in my opinion, it’s been a whole career for me, which has been about trying to achieve this feat. They’re all stepping stones, some up and some down, but I’m always trying to climb to the top and if you let something like that ruin you, it’s a huge step backwards and a waste of time for this year for me and the team and really, a career for me. So you just have to move on and try to win the next race.”
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Fugle would be the first to admit, that’s usually a lot easier said than done, especially with parity in the NASCAR Cup Series in the Next Gen era. And even by those standards, the one that prevails at Talladega Superspeedway, where chaos is always within reach of a bad decision, is a completely different animal.
Accidents aside, fuel strategy has become paramount since the introduction of the Gen 7 car ahead of the 2022 season and for Byron and the 24 team this poses a bit of a tricky dilemma. With only 15 points behind, the team is not in a must-win situation, but points will be paramount, including bonuses awarded for the first 10 results in the first and second stages.
Each segment, which will require a pit stop, will also require meticulous planning and perfect timing from Fugle and likely the Chevrolet field the team hopes to pit alongside.
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“The biggest benefit in terms of fuel savings is when you get a green flag fuel cycle and you’re able to race with the group you want to pit with, and then you can execute that really well and go from mid-pack to slightly behind mid-pack and take the lead,” Fugle said. “Where it hurts the most is if you save too much fuel, work on saving too much fuel and run 25th and the caution comes out as soon as everyone can get there. And then you come down pit road 25th under yellow and you only need three tenths of a second less fuel than the leader and you go from 25th to 20th and now you’re just in a dead end.
“We’re going to try to get to the top 12, top 15, save gas and then really be in the top five in the second half (of the stages) when you have enough fuel to get to the end of the stage and the end of the race.”
There are certainly some positives for the team ahead of Sunday’s race. First, Byron is third this season among remaining playoff drivers in points earned at repechage tracks with 150 in five events. Only teammates Larson (177) and Chase Elliott (173) have won more. And while Byron has yet to prevail at Talladega, five of his 15 career Cup Series victories have come at draft tracks, including back-to-back DAYTONA 500s (2024 and 2025).
And as for those teammates, alongside Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports has been more than formidable when it comes to superspeedway racing as of late. Fugle said he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
“I think we can all take care of each other,” Fugle said. “It’s not necessarily that we’re going to line up and push each other because I don’t know that’s always the fastest for our cars. It allows our guys to be a little free, to be a little selfish when they need to be.
“We have each other’s backs. If someone has to come down so we can get to pit road, we will. The confidence will be there until the very last lap this weekend.”
