Heading into this weekend, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron will be looking forward to winning at Watkins Glen International as NASCAR kicks off the second event of the Round of 16 this Sunday.
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However, with Goodyear introducing a new tire compound for the race and everyone’s strategy calls being all over the place due to the unknowns the same brings, it places a question mark on what the right strategy is heading into the 90-lap event.
In a bid to score the highest amount of playoff points, Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle explained how they’d go about things on Sunday. But could things backfire the same way they did for Denny Hamlin last weekend?
“You’re trying to figure out what’s the best way to score points during the day. It’s a super difficult decision. We’re going to be prepared for multiple strategies,” Fugle said. He went on to say how the team had three or four ‘solid’ plans in their arsenal.
They’d monitor the situation and possible caution flags as stage one went underway. Eventually, based on all of the data, the #24 HMS crew would decide if they wish to pit Byron earlier than the competition.
Cool video https://t.co/jmjx1z3f6e
— William Byron (@WilliamByron) August 22, 2024
Speaking further, Fugle mentioned how the team had two options to score the highest amount of points, one of which was getting into victory lane. But if that didn’t happen, they could work their way up by stacking as many points as possible through the stages.
“You’re trying to win the race but sometimes, it’s how do you get 40 points in a road course race? You can do that by winning or you can do that by stacking some points. So, we’ll figure it out and try to do the best we can,” said Fugle.
However, looking back at the Atlanta playoff race from last weekend, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin adopted a similar strategy where he went in intending to score ’20 points out of the day,’ only to end up wrecking out of the race during the latter stages, thus forfeiting any points-scoring possibility in the processes.
If stacking on points becomes the way to go for Byron, there would be the inherent risk of losing out on everything if a wreck or a caution takes them out of contention before the end of the race.
However, with the new tire compound and expected road course racing chaos, Byron would either have to qualify upfront and build a gap winning stages and stay as far out as possible from trouble.
If that doesn’t happen, the goal would be to climb to the front of the grid, avoiding any major on-track conflicts. Regardless of the implemented strategy, there will be a looming cloud of uncertainty at The Glen.
Racing in the playoffs often becomes a tricky affair. Ultimately, it’s about finding the balance between point-scoring opportunities and finishing high enough without being eliminated in someone else’s mess.
