‘We didn’t do s*** today’ - NASCAR team chief rages after 'terrible' playoff opener

NASCAR Cup Series playoff season began badly for William Byron and the No. 24 Chevrolet at Darlington, and the fallout was immediately brutal.

It was a truly miserable night for the mighty Hendrick Motorsports, with Byron coming home a lowly 21st, while teammates Chase Elliott (17th) and Kyle Larson (19th) also struggled mightily. Alex Bowman completed a bad day for the team with 29th place after a disastrous pit stop cost him 40 seconds.

Byron had gone into postseason action on the back of a regular season which started strongly but faded slightly in the closing weeks.

Speaking to the media earlier in race week, he said he thought talk of a slump was ‘overblown’, but on Sunday, his performance did little to disprove that theory. He too endured misery on pit road with a loose wheel, which harmed his chances.

READ MORE: NASCAR officials penalize multiple playoff stars at Darlington

Fugle fumes at Darlington disaster

Byron is now fifth in the playoff standings and still well above the cutline heading to Gateway next weekend, but pit crew chief Rudy Fugle found no positives at all.

Speaking on team radio, he raged: “We’re embarrassed. We’ve got to execute a lot better all around. Nothing comfortable. We didn’t do s*** 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.”

There was not much Byron could say in response, and he admitted: “Yeah. 10-4. That was terrible.”

William Byron on playoff misery

Later he would tell media: “We just struggled all night. I thought the short run was a struggle. I was hoping we’d be able to pay on the backend and have some long run pace, but we would just fall off a cliff. A lot of the time, the pit cycles would kind of save us where we could just pit right when we started to struggle, but the last run was really long.

“As good as we normally are here, it’s definitely a bummer. Appreciate Chevrolet and everyone on this No. 24 team. We’ve definitely got some work to do. We’ll go to Gateway and try to be better there.”

Now Hendrick will look for massive improvement at Gateway, not just from Byron. While Larson is third in the playoff standings, Chase Elliott is down in 11th, just nine points above the cutline at present.

The danger is real for Alex Bowman; he needs a win or to make up 19 points in the next two races to qualify for the Round of 12.

READ MORE: NASCAR Playoff Standings: Joey Logano at risk of elimination as first winner locks in

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