Last weekend, a Cup race in New Hampshire was interrupted by an uninvited intruder. The red flag was waved midway through the third stage due to rain and lightning in the area. As a result, the race was neutralized for a time until NASCAR determined it was safe enough to hold the race. However, Rick Hendricks’ employee Rudy Fugel questioned the actions of the officials during the event.
The crew chief of the No. 24 car had a relatively rough day at the office. In fact, William Byron could only manage 26th place because of a number of issues, including the changeable weather conditions he had fallen out of love with. What didn’t help was NASCAR’s decision in dealing with the weather.
What happened at NHMS? NASCAR weathered a roughly 2-hour, 15-minute rain delay in Sunday’s final stage and ordered the teams to run the final 77 laps of the competition on wet tires. Twice, the team was able to put on new rain tires under caution and made a non-competitive pit stop, but did not feel the track was dry enough to switch back to slicks. But race winner Christopher Bell was happy with NASCAR’s decision.
While most drivers were not happy with NASCAR’s assessment, Fugle knows where he stands on the issue. “I think the sanctions committee needs to make the call and say, ‘Hey, this is an official rain-weather race,'” crew chief Fugle told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. There are some things that need to be decided. They get into situations that we don’t know about, you know? “
“Because yesterday, long before the thunder, we could have yelled, ‘Hey, this is a wet race, we can let it rain.’ We knew that there was a window of about 20 more minutes of running before the lightning struck. When the track was wet. The conditions that create thunder create. They know, we don’t know.”
All Rudi Fugl wanted was for the team to have a little more control over the strategy. Simply put, he wanted teams to have the freedom to choose their tires and when to use them.
The No. 24 crew chief said the team had a chance to develop a proper strategy before the storm hit. Additionally, drivers could have taken more action on the track, but NASCAR didn’t want to take that risk. So Fugle wanted officials to be more aggressive. After all, Cup cars have access to rain tires and they should use them.
More advice on tires and strategy
According to crew chief Rudy Fugel, if a similar situation were to occur, NASCAR needs to take the initiative because it could increase the chance of mistakes. Otherwise, it would be unfair to the team’s strategists. If a driver’s tire wear worsens during the race, he should be allowed another set of tires.
This is especially helpful if someone is trying to fight their way through the field. The HMS crew chief also said that the race could have been even more interesting if the team had worked together.
They should have switched to slick tires. In this sense, he strongly believes that drivers should have some control over strategy.
On the other hand, NASCAR believes that NHMS has had great success with short track racing. “I think we basically started this whole wet tire process with the desire to start the race on time.
It really helped us to get the Xfinity race started on time (Saturday) and get the race started as soon as possible and get back on the green.
We had delays like we had today,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said after the race. In the end, things didn’t go the way Fugle expected for the Rick Hendrick-backed driver. All he can do is move on to the next race with Byron and wish him further success in Nashville.
