Hendrick crew chief reveals 'disappointment' at chaotic Bristol race

Long-time NASCAR crew chief Rudy Fugle has revealed his disappointment at one aspect of Saturday night's chaotic Bristol night race.

The race turned into one of tire management early in the first stage, completely contradictory to teams' expectations after putting together good long runs in practice on Friday.

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Christopher Bell ended up winning the race to complete a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the first round of the 2025 playoffs, with the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports car of William Byron – which Fugle is crew chief for – finishing down in 12th.

Fugle went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's 'The Morning Drive' on Monday, and claimed that the specific nature of the tire wear meant that drivers had relatively little control over how long they could run, which he called disappointing.

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Fugle: Tire confusion made race hard to plan

"You weren't in control of it much," he said, "which was – that was my disappointment. And that's the thing that made it compelling, but it was more tire shredding than tire degradation.

"You want to put the drivers in control and they weren't as in control as you'd want them to be in a 'tire saving race.' That was the hard part. You couldn't make a huge difference in how long you'd run."

NASCAR also made the announcement when tire wear became an obvious issue that they would release an extra set of rubber of each team, but the lack of certainty around that move – with the decision only being confirmed when they had prepared enough tires for every car – made strategy difficult.

He explained: “It was really hard to plan, and use your tire sets any differently because there was the big if, and then I think (while) getting ready for Stage 3, we were told that they were gonna get released, and then our strategy was able to be a little bit more, clear cut because we knew we were going to have the extra set of tires."

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