Why NASCAR ejected William Byron’s crew chief

William Byron finished his regular season championship run with a lead lap, 19th place finish on Saturday at Daytona but completed the 26-race stretch without crew chief Rudy Fugle due to an inspection infraction on Friday.

NASCAR issued the following statement after the inspection process was completed.

“On their second attempt through inspections after passing all stations they were observed making an unapproved adjustment to the splitter. The struts were reinstalled, and the car was rerun over the USS and failed due to the adjustment.”

What NASCAR saw

NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran, during his weekly SiriusXM Radio appearance, detailed what his inspection staff witnessed leading up to ejecting the veteran crew chief while also stripping the team of their pit stall and forcing Byron to complete a stop-and-go all before the race on Saturday.

“During our inspection, it’s not the first time this has happened, obviously in our inspection process but the 24 car was going through for his second time (and) it did clear the OSS, which means it would have passed and it was ready to put shocks on,” Moran said on SiriusXM. “Unfortunately, one of our officials spotted something we didn’t like that was done to the car in the process of going from the OSS to the shock station (and) at that point, we reinstalled the struts on the one side of the car because it just started to get the shocks installed and we ran it through to see if what the official witnessed actually happened to the car.

“And again, this has happened in the past (and) doesn’t happen that often but we run it through and sure enough it was different than when it just went through 10 minutes ago and the car failed. At that point, that’s basically messing with a car that’s already been impounded in inspection and we don’t take kindly to that.

“Obviously, you know, we have all our rules in place to keep the parity and keep the cars all the same as we start the event. So, after that, we ejected the crew chief, Rudy, who does a great job and congratulations for winning the regular season but he was ejected from the race.”

Fugle was on the station on Monday morning was pretty coy about what happened.

“We went down there just trying to get a win, get some playoff points and had some issues in inspection, pushing too hard on Friday and it was well documented,” Fugle said. “I was ejected and that’s unfortunate.

“I hated not being down there with my brothers and sisters fighting for the win. It’s some of the things that happen, and I regret that, and we move on and Brandon McSwain, our lead engineer, he called the race from the track.”

Hendrick Motorsports has a plane that carries the team back and forth but they weren’t going to fly just Fugle back. So instead, for Fugle to be able to work out of the team war room on the campus in Concord, North Carolina, he had to get himself there.

“I drove home Friday night and worked from the war room at Hendrick of Saturday and were able to collaborate and communicate well and accomplish the number one goal of the weekend, which was get the 48 into the playoffs.

“We had an up and down night because (William) had to do that pass through penalty, got back on the lead lap, had a shot to win Stage 2 and then Stage 3, we were kind of in the mix here and there, but ultimately not close enough to the front to make a difference at the end to win the race.”