After watching William Byron’s pursuit of an invaluable NASCAR Cup Series Playoff win come to a brutal end at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, in a bizarre incident with Ty Dillon, Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Rudy Fugle has made it crystal clear where he believes the blame lies for the wreck.

With just 31 laps remaining, Stage 1 winner Byron in the No. 24 Chevrolet was chasing down teammate Kyle Larson in the No. 5 for the lead. Separated by around a second, Byron made his way off the backstretch and onto turns three and four, where he abruptly caught up with a slow-moving Dillon in the No. 10 Chevrolet.

With Dillon heading for pit road and Byron unaware, there was no time for the No. 24 to adjust his course, smacking into the rear left of the No. 10 and immediately ending both of their races.

Speaking with reporters, Byron insisted that he had no clue that Dillon was intent on pitting. As for Dillon, he insisted that as far as he was aware, their respective spotters had been in communication about his intention, while he, too, had waved out of his window on the backstretch to make Byron aware.

Fugle, however, saw things differently when speaking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, initially laying the blame on Dillon.

Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.

“From a driver’s standpoint, there was no hand out the window,” he claimed. “There’s a lot of people that will be busy and they will do a swerve low on the backstretch, which usually means I’m coming to pit road.

“He had the opportunity to, running between the leaders, in a really poor position on, running position on track, he had the opportunity to take a really shallow entry and make sure he was out of the way to hit pit road. All those things are possible and should have been done, in my opinion.”

The blame did not solely lie on Dillon’s shoulders, though, as far as Fugle is concerned, also blaming his spotter, Joseph White.

DON’T MISS…

“From a spotter’s standpoint, I’m not up there, but, Brandon [Lines], our spotter, didn’t get clear communication that that’s what’s going on, and definitely didn’t get it early enough,” Fugle said.

“His attention was gotten when William was getting into turn three, and as soon as you take your eyes off the track as you’re entering turn three, there’s not enough time to say what’s going on and process who’s saying what.

“So, the other thing that can or should happen, especially when somebody thats off the pace and running in between two leaders, pitting 20-some laps off the pit cycle, should probably come down and say, ‘Hey, we’re getting ready to pit, be ready.’”

As a result of Byron’s 36th-place finish, he now heads into the second of three Round of 8 races 15 points below the cutoff line in fifth, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe the next closest driver above the line with a 15-point buffer of his own.

Meanwhile, JGR’s Denny Hamlin has already secured his spot in the Championship Four thanks to his landmark win in Vegas, passing Briscoe with just four laps to go to take the checkered flag for the 60th time in his career.