Fantasy NASCAR Racing

two Top 10 finishes.  Germain moved Fugle down to the Truck Series in 2011 to work with Justin Loftin; but after just nine races he was replaced by Danile Mormann atop the box.  In 2012 he wasn't a crew chief; but in 2013 he was back as the lead wrench at Kyle Busch Motorsports.  That season saw him get his first win as Busch drove to victory lane at Charlotte.  They would claim four more wins that season.  Erik Jones would also grab a win with Fugle in 2013 and Fugle would lead a KBM team of drivers to the 2013 Owners Championship.  2015 saw Fugle hired to call the shots for Jones full time in the Truck series.   Jones would go on to post three wins and the pair would claim the 2015 Truck Championship along with the Owners Championship.  William Byron came to KBM in 2016 to wheel the #9 truck.  He had a strong season as he and Fugle went to victory lane seven times.  Byron looked to be the favorite to win the 2016 Championship but just before the end of the race; he suffered a blown motor at Phoenix; (the race before Miami) left Byron just a few points short of qualifying for the Championship.  At Miami, Byron would get the win; meaning if not for the blown motor at Phoenix Byron would have claimed the Championship.  As it played out the Champions trophy went to Johnny Sauter.  Still Byron was able to deliver the Owners Championship trophy to Busch.  Christopher Bell came in to drive the #4 vehicle in 2017.  Bell racked up an impressive five wins; 15 Top 5 and 21 Top 10 finishes in 23 events.  Bell won the Truck Championship and gave KBM it's fourth owners Championship.  In 2018, Noah Gragson was hired to drive the #18 truck and have Fugle make the calls from the box.  Fugle saw Gragson win at Kansas and the pairing produced eight Top 5 and 17 Top 10 finishes that season.  Gragson would finish second in the points chase as a strong Brett Moffitt drove away from the field at Miami to claim the Champions trophy.  For 2019 it was announced that Fugle would call the shots for KBM's #51 truck to be driving by a variety of drivers including Kyle Busch, Chandler Smith, Greg Biffle among others.  Kyle made five starts in the truck as parked it in victory lane every time.  Greg Biffle was talked out of retirement for a one-off race and he to went to victory circle. It seemed all the drivers that drove the truck in 2019 had good finishes. For the season Fugle led his drivers to six wins, 15 Top 5 and 17 Top 10 finishes and yet another Owners Championship.  For his career Fugle has led his drivers to 28 wins; has had two drivers championships and five owners championships.  For 2020 Christian Eckes will be driving the #18 Toyota while Fugle calls the shots.  Eckes made eight starts for KBM in 2019 and had three Top 5 finishes.  In 2020, Eckes and Fugle teamed up for the full season.  In his first full year Eckes had some strong runs.  He didn't have any wins; but did finish second three times while having seven Top 5 and 11 Top 10 results.  They made the Chase but was eliminated before the final round and did not get to race for the Truck Series Championship.  They ended up eighth in points.  Fugle moved to the Cup Series in 2021 to head up the efforts of William Byron.  It was his first time called the shots in the premier series.  Fugle led his driver to the win at Homestead, just the third race of the season.  They added three second place finishes and had 12 Top 5 and 20 Top 10 finishes.  They ran into issues in the third round of the playoffs with finishes of 18th and 36th.  But he did have a strong car at the Roval at Charlotte and a win would have advanced him to the next round.  He wasn’t able to keep up with a strong Kyle Larson who won the event while Byron finished second.  Byron and Fugle finished the 2021 season tenth in points.  2022 saw the two paired together again, and the first two races got off to a rough start, as Byron crashed out at Daytona and Fontana.  But when the Cup Series went to the newly reconfigured Atlanta Speedway; the pair found themselves in victory lane, and locked into the play-offs.  Another win would come four weeks later at Martinsville.  But trouble lie ahead.  The next 18 races only saw the duo post one top ten finish.  This closed out the regular season; and they certainly had to do something to right the ship or the season would be over.  At Darlington they finished eighth; and followed that with a sixth and third the next two races, advancing to the next round easily.  The round of twelve went fairly smooth and they advanced into the semi-final round.  But in the round of eight, even though they completed every lap, they finished 13th, 12th and seventh; they failed to make the final four to run for the Championship. They ended up sixth in the season points.  In 2023, Fugle and Byron put together a good season.  They won a series high six times, including back to back at Las Vegas and Phoenix early in the season.  They won on short tracks, super speedways and road courses.  They made it all the way to the Championship race at Phoenix.  Byron won the pole and looked to have a strong car all day.  He led the first 92 laps, and was still in contention late in the race; leading as late as 35 laps to go.  Ryan Blaney’s crew had been working on his car every chance they got, and he got better and better.  Late in the race Blaney got past Byron to be the best running championship contender.  Ross Chastain won the race; Blaney was second, Larson was second, and Byron finished fourth.  The duo will be back together again in 2024.  After three years leading a Cup series team, Fugle has nine wins, including the crown jewel event of the Southern 500.  In eight seasons of leading his drivers to 168 starts in the truck series, he has 28 wins and 78 top five finishes.  Fugle and Byron will be back together in 2023.