Rudy Fugle Breaks Down the Bizarre Wheel Incident That Caused William Byron’s Crash

William Byron’s frustrating summer season took a dramatic turn on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he experienced a left rear wheel detachment, leading to a crash into the Turn 3 wall while running in fourth place on Lap 233.

Byron had been hovering around seventh in the championship standings before a recent slump that dropped him to 12th. Although he remains locked into the Chase for the Championship, this fall has widened his deficit, potentially leaving him 75-85 points behind Denny Hamlin instead of a closer gap of around 55 points.

The playoffs will be contested over the final 10 races of the season.

The most unusual aspect of Byron’s crash was that the left-side tires had been replaced just 20 laps earlier, with only the right sides being changed during the pit stop.

Crew chief Rudy Fugle described the incident as a “freak occurrence” rather than a mistake during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday.

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

“There’s a lot more to investigate, but in most cases, around 90 times out of 100, when we review the video from the left rear change, that lug appears tight,” Fugle stated on The Morning Drive. “It snugs up, the gun stops, and then something unusual happens. I’ve had other crew chiefs approach me on pit road to say, ‘Hey, I’ve experienced this too,’ because they were puzzled by how it occurred.”

“Essentially, the rotor features a rotor hat with drive pins that secure the wheel using a single lug. The back of the wheel has multiple dry pin holes—let’s say 18—and the car side has six or eight drive pins that must align perfectly.”

Fugle noted that a violent push from the tire changer could cause misalignment, requiring the jackman to reposition the wheel.

“I believe what happened was a misalignment of twenty-thousandths of an inch, which scraped aluminum material against the drive pin, creating a false sense of tightness that stopped the gun prematurely,” Fugle explained. “After the restart and a few laps, the left rear wheel, which typically tries to pull itself off during racing, worked its way loose, leading to this unfortunate situation.”

Upon reviewing the footage, Fugle found no fundamental issues with the pit stop, calling it “a crappy circumstance” with little that could be done to prevent it.

As a consequence, Fugle and Byron will likely lose two pit crew members, the changer and jackman, for the races at Daytona and the Southern 500. Fugle commended the depth of the Hendrick Motorsports pit department and anticipated minimal competitive impact for the team during the bulk of the playoff races.

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