When William Byron left Homestead-Miami with a 30-point cushion above the cutline, almost every NASCAR fan out there was sure that if he stayed away from mistakes, he would get in on points, if not by a win. And they were not wrong. But the race at Martinsville was far from being a fairytale to the 25-year-old speedster who came out of his #24 machine, panting heavily and regarded the Xfinity 500 as the “worst race” of his career.

However, it’s not just solely the driver who wins or loses a race. Plenty of priceless hours of planning, meetings, and teamwork go behind the successful execution of a race. If the driver fails, the entire crew fails and if the driver wins, the entire crew wins. Needless to say, a stressful day for Byron would ultimately translate into an even more stressful day for his crew chief, Rudy Fugle.

Rudy Fugle admitted that he was stressed out as he watched the last elimination race

3 hours and 29 minutes of torture is what perhaps Rudy Fugle and William Byron would call Sunday’s Cup race. Byron wasn’t able to handle his car as well as he had expected and didn’t even run inside the top 10 all day long. Moreover, he failed to score any stage points, which forced him to settle for a P13 finish, his worst result in the last 7 playoff races.

Looking back at William Byron’s qualifying laps, it wasn’t any different. The #24 Chevy star was disappointed after qualifying 16th on Saturday. The holder of the series-high 6 wins knew that he would have to battle through the traffic in order to advance into the Championship 4. And that’s what he did. He fought and didn’t give up.

However, Fugle admitted that it was perhaps the most stressed out that he has been since the playoffs kicked off a few weeks ago. While talking to the Frontstretch reporters, he said, “It doesn’t get any more stressful than that. You can do nothing for these long runs and you got to work on the car and it’s super hard to pass even when you get the car better.”

With the next-gen cars running on short tracks, it gets extremely difficult to pass an opponent due to the lack of options groove-wise. You either depend on the aero-drive or follow the leader. Surely, the latter wasn’t what the HMS team resorted to. “We got the car better and we were able to hold position,” said Fugle, “maybe pick up a couple spots here and there but we were not good enough to ever drive through the field. It’s just tough…it’s very stressful.”

He then hinted at the team’s respective P23 and P24 finishes at Martinsville and Richmond earlier this year, explaining how they’ve not been very good at short tracks this year. Nevertheless, they were good at rebounding from their slumps. And Byron did everything his team could have asked of him.

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Byron looked like he had just come out of a furnace. His eyes were red, his face glistened with sweat and the vibrant red tinge on his skin clearly spoke of the brutal fight that he had just put up. But it all paid off. When it was all over, Byron was just happy that it was over.

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According to Fugle, Byron used up even the last iota of his energy and did everything he could to get his team a win. However, Fugle admitted that he was disappointed and embarrassed that he couldn’t make the car more manageable for the Charlotte native. Interestingly, Byron had predicted that his day wasn’t going to be all bright and sunny.

According to NBC Sports, Byron couldn’t even sleep the night before. “I was so nervous sleeping last night,” vented Byron, “I don’t think I said a word to (girlfriend) Erin (Blaney) in the car on the way here. I had a feeling in my stomach. It’s nothing against all the work we put in, but I just didn’t have the feeling in the car that I wanted, and I knew it was going to be battle.”

However, it’s the adversities that make an athlete strong and immune to the odds. It’s how one reacts to these unfortunate events that go a long way in deciding the future of that athlete. And Jeff Gordon reminded Byron of the same through his precious words.

“You race long enough, you’re going to be in situations where it’s not good and you’re like ‘I would love anything to hop out of this car right now’ because you’re frustrated,” said the 4X Cup Series champion “Things aren’t going the way you want them to go.”

“Those are the days where you truly build the team of what you’re made of, what your team is made of. So I think good comes out of it even though it’s a struggle,” he added.

And good did come out. William Byron is now locked into arguably the most important race of the season. Only time will tell how fast this team can recover and execute next week at Phoenix Raceway.

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