“This is Junk!” William Byron and Rudy Fugle Profanity Laced Radio Meltdown Shocked NASCAR

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season so far hasn’t been kind to William Byron, who came into the year on the back of three-race winning 2025 season, hoping to win the title. Other than four top-5 finishes this year, there hasn’t been any positive for the No:24 team and the Hendrick Motorsports’ cars have been overall subpar.

This Sunday’s race at Atalanta was another challenging day for the veteran. Midway to the race, the car was so bad the racer had an angry back and forth with his long-time serving crew chief Rudy Fugle. He called the Chevy junk and that didn’t sit well with the senior HMS official who asked him to focus on the race.

WB: This is junk. Absolutely f****** junk.

RF: Copy that. Do what you can. Lightning is close, not quite halfway.

WB: Plowing my a** off, this is terrible.

William Byron and Rudy Fugle in the No:24 Chevy team radio.

Rick Hendrick would schedule a milk-and-cookies meeting with these two like he did @JimmieJohnson and @chadknaus but he knows William would walk in and be like "OH YAY, MILK AND COOKIES!" and be ten snickerdoodles in and still missing the metaphor pic.twitter.com/tkfeIxQEAC

— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) July 13, 2026

The response from William Byron didn’t sit well with Rudy Fugle, who called out his driver and explained how his car is too tight at the moment and the only thing could do is to either continue racing or quit the whole event. He survived the chaos of the rain-delayed race and eventually secured a P16 finish.

RF: I f****** heard you, OK!? I heard you! I got it! You’re five numbers loose, I put a round in the left rear, we’re too tight right now! It’s the tight offset! We can park it, or we can keep trying until I get to work on it again! Just drive the f****** thing!

WB: You got it.

Rudy Fugle and William Byron on No:24 team radio.

William Byron and Rudy Fugle came into the weekend expecting to win

Coming into the weekend, the HMS racer was clearly looking to win the race, as he found some confidence with some strong runs, they have produced over the last few races. He and his crew chief found more pace at Chicagoland, giving them hope.

I look at the present time and just think about where we’ve come from and where we are now, and it’s exciting. Rudy [Fugle, crew chief] said after the race [at Chicagoland] it’s exciting to have some good cars and be in contention to win again. That’s honestly all I’m worried about – being back in the mix. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks, honestly. I feel like every time I get in the car now, I’m a little more optimistic than I was a couple of months ago.

William Byron said.

In the same conversation, the HMS driver talked about Toyota’s absolute domination in the 2026 season and admitted that TRD has been the standard for the season. He believes they are closing the gap and is determined to get back to winning ways.

The Toyotas have been the standard this year, but I think we’re starting to get there. It makes me optimistic every time I get in the race car that we’re going to have something to battle with.

William Byron added.

Other than Chase Elliott, no other Hendrick Motorsport driver has won a race in the 2026 season and if they can regain the momentum they lost this week at Atalanta, it is possible to win again. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming days.

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