“It’s really hard to get ahead of yourself with this Next-Gen car.” William Byron uttered these words back in 2023, but unfortunately, they hold even in 2025. Rick Hendrick’s driver is a superspeedway master in the Next-Gen era, holding four drafting track wins. He clinched his second Daytona 500 this year after overcoming a last-lap wreck. Despite this overarching success, Byron’s crew chief raised his eyebrows at NASCAR’s innovation after Sunday’s Talladega race.
The Next-Gen car has never gained an excellent reputation since its inception in 2022. Ranging from shocking safety issues to failed cost-cutting measures, NASCAR’s Generation 7 car has had many flaws. But probably the most glaring one surfaced during the Jack Link’s 500 race – the inability to make moves on the track, as Rick Hendrick’s insider observed.
A sincere plea from Rick Hendrick’s crew
Well, the recently concluded race in Talladega was entertaining. It witnessed 67 lead changes among 23 drivers, a telling formula of success. However, underneath this facade lies a bitter truth. Many drivers out front stayed in a two-by-two formation to the finish line, never being able to make a move. In the waning laps, Kyle Larson could have pushed Austin Cindric far enough to cut to the lead, but never could. Denny Hamlin could never get through the iron wall that Ross Chastain created by throwing a block around lap 175. Similarly, William Byron faced a similar dilemma, as he could not push Ryan Preece far enough ahead of the win, which would have lent him a window of opportunity. But Rick Hendrick’s team member has a solution.
Rudy Fugle, the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports crew chief, has won 13 races with William Byron since 2021. Knowing NASCAR by the pulse from its early Next-Gen days, Fugle knows what to do to fix the problem that Talladega faced. “To me, it’s not easy to drive at all when you’re getting pushed. We’re doing the things, pushing and going really hard, locking bumpers. But if we can get the cars where they’re harder to drive wide open, where you couldn’t lock on very much, that would probably be the best case, and we could get some more movement, more handling, and things like that.” He summed up his points, but added a dilemma as well. “A little bit harder to drive, wide-open, so that you just have to speed the cars up, which then becomes a safety problem.”
Rudy Fugle will always take a clean top 5 at Talladega
Did the steering issue cost William Byron at all on that last run?
Also, the 24 crew chief on what this car needs at superspeedways to be directionally better pic.twitter.com/jVdiCy3PzA
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) April 27, 2025
Indeed, the Sunday race featured only four cautions – a relatively low number for the rampage that Talladega is usually associated with. So Rick Hendrick‘s insider acknowledged that NASCAR may need to consider both safety and speed. Rudy Fugle continued, “It’s a really, you know, rock, paper, paintball kind of situation. It’s really, really tough for NASCAR and us to say, we want to go 10 miles an hour faster and see what will happen. The only way you’re going to find out is by taking a race…a series of three or four races. None of these races is the same. Daytona had no green-flag cycles till they had some…You have to try a package of three or four races.”
If these demands are met by the sanctioning body, William Byron may become the star of NASCAR. He already is the star of the 2025 season so far, with his teammates close behind. But, what’s the performance like as a team?
Is Mr. H’s team delivering the expected performance?
Well, Rudy Fugle may have a comprehensive list of wishes for NASCAR to fulfill. However, Rick Hendrick’s team is faring pretty well in the Cup Series. William Byron clinched his fifth top-five finish at Talladega. He retains his crown as leader of the championship standings, being 31 points ahead of his teammate Kyle Larson. Larson shuffled up to 2nd place, Chase Elliott to fifth, and Alex Bowman to 7th after Ryan Preece and Joey Logano were disqualified. For Larson, it felt like a personal victory. The No. 5 Chevrolet driver is a versatile racer with dirt racing championships and a NASCAR championship in his resume. Yet drafting tracks have always been his sore spot. The 2021 Cup Series champion is yet to score a trophy at Daytona, Atlanta, or Talladega.
On Sunday, however, his winning Stage 1 and leading three laps was a career-best effort at Talladega. Kyle Larson reflected on his race, highlighting the problems that Rudy Fugle pointed out. At the same time, he was happy with his result. “I was just second row inside and just going to do everything I could to try and advance our lane and maybe open it up. So maybe then I could get to the outside, but we were all pushing so equally that it kept the lanes kind of jammed up. I needed something else to kinda happen, maybe them to get blocking each other or something, but still a great day. A stage win, [P2] in the second stage, and [P2] in the final, so great points day and best career finish on a superspeedway, so happy with the performance in the Hendricks.com Chevy.”
Rick Hendrick’s team gave their best on Sunday. Despite the Next-Gen car problems surfacing in Talladega, they excelled nonetheless. Let us see if NASCAR pays heed to the winningest team’s insider’s demands.
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