I know, I’m not going out on a limb or anything here.
Telling someone that Rudy Fugle is an amazing crew chief is as lukewarm of a take that there is.
Although, I think what we saw on Sunday at Homestead should scare the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series garages. There is something special in that combo that makes up team No. 24.
Going into Sunday’s race at Homestead, Byron had failed to finish in a podium position at any intermediate track in a NASCAR Cup Series race.
His best finish previously on that type of a track was a fifth-place run at Kansas in 2019.
Fugle defied the odds.
When Hendrick Motorsports added the pride of the Kyle Busch Motorsports truck series program over the off-season, many praised the hire as one of the biggest stories of the off-season.
It only took three races to show.
Not only did Fugle, who had 28 NASCAR truck series wins along with a pair of championships, push Byron over the hump, but he helped the No. 24 become the class of the field.
With a one-lap shootout ending Stage 2 of the event, Byron was able to pilot his car from P4 to the front, collecting an extra playoff point.
When Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. started on the front row of the final restart and it looked like they were going to pull away from the field, Byron came from P6 to take the lead in a handful of laps.
Then he drove away with ease.
Some will call him a surprise winner on Sunday. I get it. It definitely surprised me with how Byron had performed there previously, but this is nowhere close to the upsets that Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell gave when they won the first two races of the season.
Byron and Fugle have something strong here, as does Hendrick Motorsports.
The HMS guys had a rousing day landing Larson in the top 5 and Alex Bowman a top 10 as well. The defending series champion finishing P14 was the worst finish out of the four on Sunday. It wasn’t a bad day by any means.
Whether this was a major showing for the four-car stable or this was a one-off case where Homestead drives different than the cookie-cutter intermediates, there’s one certainty.
Fugle makes Byron better.
And speaking of that chance where this is a one-off, I just don’t think it’s a coincidence when the crew chief change made the driver that much better than the rest of the field.
These two clicked today, and delivered the series its third different winner in three races this season.
There’s a lot of racing left to be had and a plethora of situations that could play out. I don’t think I’m ready to make the call where we will see 16 different winners in the regular season this year.
I will say we’re as close to that in terms of parity as we’re going to get so far. Throw in the unique schedule and new tracks and I see no reason to think that it is unrealistic for that to happen.
If Byron picks up another with Fugle at the helm before the playoffs, though, this group could seriously contend.
I’ll leave y’all with Fugle’s words as his young gun of a driver crossed the finish line for his second career Cup Series victory on Sunday afternoon.
“That’s how we race,” Fugle said. “That’s how we’re gonna do it. Get used to winning. Get used to it boys.”
