CONCORD, N.C. -- Rudy Fugle needed just three races into his NASCAR Cup Series career to become a winning crew chief. His and William Byron’s smooth win Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway helped usher in a new era for the No. 24 team.
“I’m excited to win my first race in the Cup Series,” Fugle said. “It is an amazing feeling; there’s nothing like winning at any level. It was so much fun leading laps, having a fast car and that pressure of performance.”
Fugle said his previous relationship with Byron from their pairing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2016 helped ease the stress of moving up to the Cup Series. Their rapport allowed them to get into a groove at Hendrick Motorsports and, ultimately, it helped Fugle win his first Cup race.
“It helped us, especially because of the fact that I'm new to the Cup Series,” Fugle said. “What I brought was a knowledge of William. … What helped us about the previous relationship was the fact that we've worked together before and I knew him. I knew how to push his buttons, I knew how to motivate him, and that helped buy me some time to learn these Cup cars that I don't know yet.”
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Fugle was announced as the new crew chief of the No. 24 team on Oct. 26, 2020. He was hand selected for Byron and the pair spent much of the offseason detailing how they wanted their Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LEs to run.
“For us, the familiarity is because we did well,” Byron said after the race. “We know what we need and what we want in the racecars. A racecar is the same, whether it's a truck or a car. We know what we need.”
Fugle said it had to be the right opportunity to pry him away from the Truck Series, where he was a crew chief at Kyle Busch Motorsports for nine years. Getting the call to be Byron’s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports was one of the few opportunities he was willing to take.
“It definitely was the right opportunity,” he said. “And then I just wanted to prove that I could - to everyone, to myself, to everybody, that yeah, I could do it at this level.
“We want to do it a whole lot more. It's only my first win, so we've definitely got to get my second win and the next one after that. As a group, this is just great. Just an awesome team, and they're helping me get where we need to be.”