William Byron crew chief Rudy Fugle ’embarrassed’ after rough start to NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington

Finishing P21 in the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs is not where Rudy Fugle and William Byron expected to be. It was a disappointing performance, and Fugle even went a little beyond that after the finish of the Southern 500.

If it weren’t for the 15 bonus points for the regular season championship, William Byron would be in a much worse position. However, he escapes Darlington in fifth overall among NASCAR Playoff drivers.

This was far from what this team wanted. Hendrick Motorsports as a whole had a rather poor outing. It’s back to the drawing board for these teams.

Rudy Fugle put his team on notice over the radio. William Byron confirmed the sentiment.

“We’re embarrassed. We’ve got to execute a lot better all around. Nothing comfortable. We didn’t do shit today. We’ve got to improve and get better and race our ass off every week or it’s going to be a long offseason,” Fugle said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic.

“Yeah, 10-4,” Byron replied. “That was terrible.”

This is a developing story…