William Byron's crew chief silences critics with second NASCAR Cup win of the season - "If anybody was starting to question anything, they can stop"

William Byron's crew chief Rudy Fugle sounded confident after their second victory of the season in EchoPark Automotive GP at the Circuit of the Americas.

After snatching victory in the season-opener Daytona 500, Byron's performance took a hit as he finished 17th in the follow-up race. He was then 10th in the Pennzoil 400 and was out of the top 10 in the next two races. However, he managed to clinch victory once again at COTA, bringing himself up to sixth place in the Cup Series championship.

With this victory, the team is seemingly in a much better place. His crew chief Rudy Fugle told SiriusXM that this win is a "statement" for the team. He said:

“Yeah, it’s great you know. Winning our second race again already. You know we haven't had good finishes since the 500, so this is kind of a statement for our team. I don’t really care what anybody else thinks but the team itself. If anybody was starting to question anything they can stop.”

“We’re a great team from top to bottom and we can win lots of races and different types of races. It took everybody to win this race.”

William Byron now has 183 points in the championship and is tied with Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing. They are both 37 points away from Martin Truex Jr. who is in the lead.

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Race winner William Byron calls it 'difficult' to win races

Byron started the race from pole position, and after a thrilling 231 miles of action-filled drama, he emerged victorious. Prior to the race, he stood tenth in the championship, but as mentioned, he now stands in sixth place.

This was an excellent result for him. Talking to Fox Sports, he mentioned the challenge and difficulty that NASCAR brings in every week of racing.

"This sport is so hard and so difficult week in and week out to show up and have fast cars. We’ve had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks but put a lot of preparation in this past week and just thankful for the team I have around me and all the people back home as well."

William Byron also stated that it's equally fun and difficult to win races in the sport.

"Just super thankful to have this opportunity. It’s just a lot of fun to win races, and it’s really difficult, too," he said.