“We look like Truck Series”: Frustrated William Byron gives unfiltered verdict after Denny Hamlin swept almost half the field at Atlanta

William Byron did not hold back after getting taken out by the multi-car wreck at Atlanta, expressing how 'it just sucks' to get caught up in the mess. Going a step further, the Hendrick Motorsports driver called out the mid-race shenanigans as something you'd expect in the Truck Series.

Ever since the track repavement in 2021, EchoPark Speedway(formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) has produced superspeedway-style pack racing. Saturday's Quaker State 400 faced the brunt of such close-quarters action when Denny Hamlin triggered a multi-car wreck on a lap 69 restart.

Byron began the race in 18th place and made his way to the top 5 by Stage 1, while many decided to flip the stage in favor of track position in the following restart. Hamlin was one among them, but he got squeezed when the field bunched up and made contact with John Hunter Nemechek, followed by a spin into Noah Gragson.

The resultant crash took out multiple contenders, including all of Byron and his teammates, Ryan Blaney, and Austin Cindric. Speaking to the media post-race, Byron took a shot at the whole ordeal and said (via X/Bob Pockrass),

"It just sucks right like you're really not that worried about getting back to the front because it's a hundred lap stage and then we crash on the restart....you can be aggressive, like once you get kind of fully up to speed. I mean, obviously there's jockeying on restarts always, but just try not to crash, you know. So I don't know why we crashed the whole field like trying to get up speed. We look like a truck series or something." (0:06 onwards)

The result marked William Byron's maiden DNF of the season after 18 starts. Moreover, the championship leader lost ground to Chase Elliott, who won the race and now trails him by a 37-point deficit.

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William Byron shares X post mocking the Atlanta disaster

Frustrated by the disastrous outcome in Atlanta, William Byron took to X and shared a GIF mocking the race proceedings. The short clip showcased a weatherman getting completely buried by a snowplow.

The HMS driver captioned the post with a barrage of fuming emojis.

"🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬," he wrote.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, William Byron detailed how he got caught up in the 18-car wreck.

"We were just running a great race in the top five. They all stacked up and at that point, I went right a little bit; the wreck was already happening and I just kind of got shoved into it.”

The 27-year-old lost out to Ryan Preece in the inaugural round of the In-Season Challenge. The Rousch Fenway Keselowski Racing driver finished 15th overall, as he's set to face off against Noah Gragson in the Challenge Round 2 at the Chicago Street Course.