Third time’s the charm and there’s no one proving it better than William Byron. The Daytona 500 winner brought a fairytale conclusion to the 40th anniversary celebration of Hendrick Motorsports, as he secured his third victory in the season. Byron was followed by his other two teammates, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, which marked the first 1-2-3 finish on the paper-clip track of Martinsville. 

While the #24 Chevrolet was a dominant car, one cannot deny the uncharacteristic strategy that was charted out by Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle that catapulted the driver to the victory lane for the third time in the season. While the crew chief deserves a fair share of credit for Sunday’s win, Fugle did not forget to appreciate William Byron for his clinical performance.

William Byron’s crew chief is over the moon after the driver’s performance

Being relentless in pursuit, Byron’s victory in Martinsville was the result of the perfect execution of a pit stop that put the driver in an advantageous position. Nevertheless, bearing witness to his driver’s win for a third time in the season, especially on a historic day for HMS, crew chief Rudy Fugle was over the moon. In the post-race interview with Sirius XM, the crew chief stated, “Honestly, I don’t know what that call was, we wanted to pit early. We knew we wanted to pit, but it was really him driving afterwards.”

“He came up how we came in and passed them all. He was off with the car, the car was handling good and he made it work. So I was super proud of him, he had do to the work. We just got right there behind everybody and made it work.” When asked about how Byron navigated his way from the back only to earn his victory, Fugle added, “It’s pretty awesome, we had an awesome car in practice today and we saw ourselves put in the qualifying and starting at the back. First run was awesome we got upto eighth I think after that we were, ‘Okay we probably should have worked our car at the first pit stop’, and then our car that we thought was good and then we got back on track and then never missed a beat.”

Although initially, the contention for the win had boiled down between Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, it was the late caution that overturned the tables of the race and for William Byron. Nevertheless, the driver did not shy away from thanking his team back. 

Rick Hendrick Lets Slip Nervousness Surrounding William Byron Amidst Notorious 40-Yo Martinsville History Repeat

William Byron conveys his regards to Mr. Hendrick and his wife

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Although Byron had started at the back of the grid, it was the green flag pit stop with 104 laps into the race that changed the tidings of the race. However, the final caution with just two laps to go possessed a threat to Byron, but the driver persevered in his effort and claimed his victory.

Speaking to FOX in the post-race interview, Byron stated, “Just so proud of everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. I grew up a big Hendrick fan, and to be here for the 40th anniversary and all that goes into just this organization, all the people — it’s all about the people. And I just want to thank Mr. Hendrick and Linda [Hendrick] and everyone involved.”  

“It’s pretty awesome, pretty badass to win at Martinsville […] It stunk to do a restart there at the end like that, but that’s the way it goes,” he further added. 

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Now, with the Martinsville celebration over, all eyes are at Autotrader EchoPark Automotive set to be held at Texas Motor Speedway next weekend! Are you excited?