“Rudy Was Just Crying” – William Byron Details Eerie Silence Moments Before Claiming The Daytona 500 Crown Jewel

William Byron achieved perhaps the biggest race win of his career on Monday when he won the 66th running of the Daytona 500 but the way the race ended, there was a bit of confusion for a while in everyone’s minds. The driver of the legendary #24 car recently revealed what happened a few moments after he had taken the white flag before he was announced the winner of The Great American Race when the only thing he could hear on his radio was his crew chief crying.

Byron perhaps enjoyed the best season of his career so far in 2023 as he won 6 races in the Cup Series and had the best possible start this year. The driver of the #24, who is also the youngest driver in Hendrick Motorsports at the moment, will be looking to build on his Daytona display to go on and win his maiden Cup Series championship in November.

William Byron was nervous about his teammate snatching away his moment

Speaking on a recent episode of The Dale Jr Download podcast, the HMS star revealed he had no clue about what the final result was after the final lap wreck ensued at the Daytona International Speedway. One of the people he was most nervous about was his teammate Alex Bowman, who had passed the #24 pretty quickly after the white flag fell.

“I knew we had crossed the line, so I was sure that we had taken the white because like they had the big lights on the start/finish line now. And then there was…the caution lights were, I guess like towards turn 1, and Alex had a huge run, like he was going to clear me because all the energy got broken up behind me so I felt like man it’s just a matter of when they called it because he passed me relatively quick right after the caution so I was nervous. I wasn’t gonna get excited…I was just super anxious,” the 26-year-old said.

His crew chief, Rudy Fugle, is perhaps one of the most passionate crew chiefs in the Cup Series today. Last year, when the #24 failed to cross the finish line before the other championship contenders, the motorsport veteran’s dejection was evident. He was in tears this time as well, but these were happy tears. Unfortunately, he did not immediately inform his driver that he had won and William Byron was left utterly confused as to what was going on.

“Rudy didn’t really say anything and everyone was just super quiet,” the 26-year-old added. “Well, no one said anything, Rudy was just crying. He was like Tony on the box that year with Kurt Busch. He was just in tears, so I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know if he was upset that we lost, so I was like tell me what that means.”

It was like a script that could not have been written any better. Hendrick Motorsports had not won the Daytona 500 since 2014. A decade later, in their 40th anniversary year, Byron ended the 10-year drought and finally brought the trophy back to Rick Hendrick’s organization.

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And he did it in one of the most legendary HMS cars of all time, the #24. The number was made popular by a certain Jeff Gordon during the late 1990s when he won 4 Cup Series championships in it. The current HMS vice chairman could not have been happier with the result, and he expressed his joy after the race.

“It’s so cool with this going to our team. He already was a superstar but this takes it to another level,” the former driver of the #24 said to honor the 26-year-old’s achievement as per Orlando Sentinel. Team owner Rick Hendrick was a happy man as well since it was the perfect start to the team’s 40th anniversary year. “You couldn’t have scripted it any better. To win this on our 40th to day, that’s just awesome,” the motorsports veteran quipped.

With such an impressive start to the new season, William Byron will only have one goal in mind, becoming Cup Series champion. He is already into the playoffs and will be looking to get his driving skills to their absolute peak by the time the regular season comes to an end.

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