Stubbs: How William Byron's rise compares to Jeff Gordon's best years

Reuters

19-02-2025

February 19 - More than 25 years after Jeff Gordon earned his second Daytona 500 win in 1999, he sat inside the media center at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, preparing to take questions.
Gordon, now the vice chairman of operations for Hendrick Motorsports, was previously the youngest driver to win two Daytona 500s. That was until 27-year-old William Byron, piloting the Hendrick No. 24 that Gordon brought to power in the 1990s, escaped the last-lap big one to win his second consecutive Great American Race on Sunday.
Gordon was asked about Byron breaking his record.
"I hope he breaks them all," Gordon said. "I'm in full support of that."
Three decades ago, Gordon, crew chief Ray Evernham and Hendrick Motorsports crafted one of the greatest dynasties in NASCAR history. From 1995 to 1998, Gordon won 40 races, the 1997 Daytona 500 and three Winston Cup titles. Evernham left the No. 24 team with seven races remaining in the 1999 season, the same year Gordon won his second Daytona 500.
Twenty-six years later, Gordon has gray hair. He traded in his fire suit for a vest after a brief stint as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016. While he still answers questions in post-race news conferences, he sits to the side, with the Hendrick driver who won the race taking the spot Gordon sat in 93 times.
Byron is poised to be the face of a new dynasty alongside another man who is getting used to the spotlight of the winner's circle: crew chief Rudy Fugle.
Let's not mince words: In regard to both statistics and the eye test, no driver/crew chief combination besides Hendrick Motorsports' own Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have come close to matching or eclipsing the results that Gordon and Evernham produced in the '90s. But if any duo is going to match the Rainbow Warriors, it could be Byron and Fugle.
Byron was paired with Fugle during the 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, in which Byron won seven races. Byron moved up to the Cup Series in the famed No. 24 in 2018, and he won his first Cup Series race in August 2020 at Daytona with Knaus atop the pit box.
Fugle was paired with Byron ahead of the 2021 Cup Series season, which saw Byron record his second victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway and finish a then-career-best 10th in points.
Since the advent of the Next-Gen car in 2022, Byron and Fugle have won 12 races, made two appearances in the Championship 4 and haven't finished worse than sixth in the Cup Series points standings.
After winning the Daytona 500 in 2024, Byron and Fugle were back in victory lane in Daytona Beach on Sunday, with Byron becoming just the fifth driver ever to win back-to-back Daytona 500s. Say what you will about the state of modern superspeedway racing, but two Harley J. Earl Trophies don't just fall into a driver's lap.
Quantifying what a dynasty is or could be in modern NASCAR is a difficult task. NASCAR's championship format is arguably the least straightforward it's ever been, making it harder for the fastest teams to make the Championship 4 on a consistent basis, let alone take home the title in Phoenix.
Rather than using the amount of Bill France Cups a driver has on his shelf to decide whether or not he forged a dynasty, looking at race wins and Championship 4 appearances -- two accomplishments aplenty in the No. 24 camp over the past three seasons -- seems much more reasonable.
Byron and Fugle's stretch from 2022 to the 2025 Daytona 500 doesn't compare to Gordon and Evernham's dominant run in the '90s, but then again, only Johnson and Knaus' 2006-10 stretch has since.
"We talk about it all the time, how quickly he's risen through the ranks and won races and championships," Gordon said. "He continues to do it at an elite level in Cup. This guy (Fugle) has a lot to do with it. Rudy's a great crew chief. When you get that combination of a great talent like William and a great talent like Rudy and you put the team together with it, the resources we have, magical things happen."
If Byron and the No. 24 team can continue to earn Championship 4 berths, it seems a foregone conclusion that a championship or two will come their way -- and with it, talk of crowning them as another great dynasty that just so happened to be emblazoned with the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24.