CONCORD, N.C. - After a summer stretch marked by bad luck and a pair of fuel-mileage gambles that did not pay off, William Byron and the No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet team broke through with a dramatic victory at Iowa Speedway, turning their midseason misfortunes into a statement win.
As the sun sank toward the horizon and the race was nearing its end, fuel strategy took center stage, especially in the final 30 circuits. Byron conserved just enough, running half throttle to hold off Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney en route to his second win of the season.
And while any victory is a big one, the manner in which Sunday's came made it far from just another win for Byron and Hendrick Motorsports.
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season has given Byron and his team more close calls and heartbreaks than in recent memory. Fuel Mileage races going awry at Michigan International Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway left a sting as the team narrowly missed potential wins and valuable points.
Fast forward to Sunday's event and Byron was up front until a stage two caution in the middle of a green flag pit cycle trapped him a lap down. Thanks to being in the lucky dog position, Byron and his team took advantage of a free pass and made their way back to the lead lap of the race.
With passing at a premium all race, crew chief Rudy Fugle made a bold call to pit Byron early, undercutting the leaders and cycling the No. 24 car to the front with 140 laps left. A flurry of late cautions provided yet another out, as Byron was forced to save fuel while defending the lead from Briscoe, Keselowski and later, Blaney. The strategy paid off.
"Yeah, in two of the races, three to four tenths of a gallon of gas would have got us a win in the past couple months, and then just these weird -- even today I felt like the hammer was dropping on us," Fugle said in the post-race presser. "We were going to run in the top five and then all these cautions come and I was like, 'It's all going against us.' Thankfully we had a good enough car that we were able to save gas and get there.
"It's a credit to everybody on the team, but yeah, it's been tough because you're just waiting for that next thing to drop, so that's why we were all sitting up there like, 'When is something going to go wrong today,' and it just didn't. Thankfully that gives us more confidence, and it'll give us a boost for sure."
Byron has faced his fair share of adversity this season, but though the highs and lows he continued to fight, and Fugle did not hold back praise for his driver after Sunday's win.
"He's an awesome driver," Fugle said. "I think he's the best driver all around in the field right now. Of course he's mine, and I should say that, but I really think he's maturing and getting the experience to show that off. He's very well diversified, and then he's a fighter. He's got a heart of a lion and fights through everything. There's no quit. Those are things that he's gotten better at as well over the years just rolling with the punches and what happens next, and next thing you know you're leading, and you've got a chance to win."
Byron's win also vaulted him back in the lead of the regular season points standings, just in front of Hendrick Motorsports teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. The regular season champion gets 15 playoff points and a trophy, a valuable prize for all full-time Cup teams. While internal competition would make any organization nervous, Hendrick Motorsports president and general manager Jeff Andrews sees it as a strength with three of the team's cars sitting atop the standings.
RELATED: Points standings after Iowa
"I love our race teams. I love where our mindset is right now," Andrews said. "We're rolling through the late part of the summer here, which typically hasn't been our strongest time of year, and I just love what we've got going on right now, and we're focused on that 1-2-3 in that regular season championship and getting all those bonus points that are available. That's another big one for us.
"Obviously, we want to win that and get that regular season championship, but that second and third also pays, too, and we want to take those points away from our competitors if we can."
Of course, Andrews also has the playoff picture in mind.
"Just a lot of work has gone on," Andrews said. "Obviously, we have Phoenix in mind and (there's) some similarities (with Iowa), so a lot of work went into Iowa to just try to understand if there was something there that would help us turn the corner a little bit towards Phoenix.
"It's been not that far off. It's incredibly close right now. I think you saw the lap times today, and the tire falloff was next to nothing, and at one time there was this whole group of cars within a tenth, tenth and a half of the top 10. It just doesn't take much to go from top two or three and a little hiccup here or there and all of a sudden, you're outside the top 10, and once you get back there these days with this car, it's tough. It's a struggle to claw your way back up there."
"Yeah, I think the win was big for us," Fugle concluded. "I think that just solidified everything we've had going on where we've - since Michigan, I would say, we've had really fast cars still. Haven't gotten many good finishes, and you get constantly - we kind of joked about it today; you constantly have these questions of what's going wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong. This year I don't know that there's a ton wrong other than circumstance, and sometimes that's the way these races play in the summer is that way. The win is huge to solidify what everyone at Hendrick Motorsports is doing, working hard, and to get a win for the company is huge."