As the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs gear up toward the Phoenix finale, William Byron’s No. 24 team stands tall after a must-win Martinsville triumph. Crew chief Rudy Fugle has steered them into a spot in the Championship 4 for the third straight year. With Byron’s recent win flipping past near misses into momentum, the squad eyes their first title since 2021. And amidst all of this, Jeff Gordon, team vice chairman, has voiced high hopes for Hendrick’s duo, yet the pressure builds in this high-stakes showdown.

Fugle’s steady hand shines in Byron’s growth, from Truck Series rookie wins under his watch to six Cup victories in 2023 alone. Gordon, who piloted the same No. 24 to glory, sees echoes of his own grit in Byron’s laser-focused prep. But with teammate Kyle Larson also advancing, internal battles loom large. This resilience hints at deeper layers of determination waiting to unfold.

Rudy Fugle’s defiant push for glory

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Rudy Fugle opened up about the playoff rollercoaster, capturing the raw drive keeping Byron’s team in the hunt. “It is tough. Everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to run up front, You know, those first six races, you know, a lot of 11th place finishes, 10th place finishes, and not as good as we want to run.”

Fugle reflected on those frustrating 10th- and 11th-place finishes that he got in the first six races. That early grind tested their mettle, especially after Byron‘s regular-season crown faded amid wrecks at Las Vegas and a last-lap spin at Talladega. Yet, as Fugle noted, “our cars were lightning fast” once the Round of 8 hit, with the crew nailing setups that swept stages at Martinsville. This turnaround shows that it wasn’t luck but rather a payoff from years of collaboration, like their back-to-back win in the Daytona 500 from last season.

Fugle’s refusal to give up because of his whole No. 24 team’s hard work, but still the presence of Kyle Larson in the final four definitely adds some fear in the No. 24’s title hunt dream. And that same fear is magnified when Jeff Gordon leans toward Larson having the edge in this title tilt. Gordon, speaking at Martinsville, praised Larson’s poise: “I just think that Kyle is very unique in the way that he blocks things out. And I feel like he’s always had confidence, always been able to fall back on his talents. And his race team, his race cars to get himself back there.”

Jeff Gordon’s words highlight Larson’s grit and the lessons he learned from over a decade of experience. Larson’s 10.7 average finish at Phoenix in 22 starts edges Byron’s 10.8 average finish in 15 starts. Larson’s edge? His proven clutch gene, from that 2021 Phoenix crown to 4 top-fives in the last 5 races there, gives Gordon an edge to favor Larson over Byron’s three Martinsville wins.

Still, Fugle doubles down on experience as their weapon: “There’s a little bit of an experience factor there that will hopefully pay off when it matters,” he told SiriusXM, nodding to three straight Championship 4 runs. This marks Fugle’s fifth Cup year with Byron, building on their 7 Truck Series wins in Byron’s 2016 rookie campaign alone.

Byron echoes this grit, fresh off a Martinsville win, where he led 304 laps from the pole. “I found a way to flip that script,” he declared post-race, turning scars from prior near-misses into fuel for his 16th career win. That bold pass on Ryan Blaney amid tight traffic sealed it, a nod to the mental shift Fugle fosters. Gordon called it “the race of his career,” but his nod to Larson‘s steadiness underscores why Fugle won’t yield and eying to prove his doubters wrong in Phoenix’s 312-lap grind.

With two Hendrick gunslingers facing off against the field, the real fireworks could ignite from an old-school rivalry between two giants team of the sport.

Hendrick-JGR clash set for epic showdown

Jeff Gordon predicts a brutal back-and-forth at Phoenix, pitting Hendrick’s Byron and Larson against Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. “We’re pretty excited to have two-on-two in a heavyweight fight… I don’t know. I feel like our chances are extremely good. Right now I’m excited,” Gordon said post-Martinsville, as the stakes are high for HMS, the whole organization looking to get that trophy, which HMS last won in 2021 through Kyle Larson.

This setup revives a decades-old feud, like Gordon’s ’98 clash with Dale Jarrett or HMS’s 2021 sweep over JGR. Hamlin, winless in the 2024 playoffs, is a Phoenix master with three wins. And he is pairing with Chase Briscoe, the wildcard eyeing the title in the first season with JGR.

Gordon amps the hype by saying, “It’s going to be an epic battle. You got four cars, two organizations that are going to give it everything.” JGR last tasted glory in 2019 with Kyle Busch, but now, with Hamlin looking for his first title very desperately and Briscoe’s Talladega charge, they’re reloaded. Hendrick counters with Byron’s stage-sweeping form and Larson’s 14 Phoenix top-10s, but track temps and tire wear could flip scripts fast.

That storied tension, Gordon added, “We’ve battled through some big events and championships in the past,” setting the stage for a prep week buzzing with strategy tweaks and sim laps.