After winning the Cup title last year, Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t had the best start to a season in 2026. The Daytona 500 was the first disappointment with underwhelming results, and yesterday’s Atlanta race was even worse. It was particularly rough for one of their star drivers, who sits in the #24 Chevy, who not only suffered a blow towards the end but took several other contenders out with him.

Hendrick Motorsports driver reacts to red flag-causing crash

William Byron had a strong race running, but got loose with four laps remaining in the race. He tried avoiding the oncoming traffic, but couldn’t. The red flag was soon out. Many pointed out a potential tire issue, but he recently proved otherwise.

“No, no, I actually had damage from the wreck before. So, the front end was kind of split a little bit and I just didn’t have as much grip. So, I was searching for air and got loose. So it was, it was on me, I just messed up.” Byron had the perfect way to escape the responsibility for the crash. But he revealed to the media that it wasn’t a tire issue that caused the wreck.

It wouldn’t be wrong to call the race eventful. Denny Hamlin triggered a major wreck on lap 224, taking several cars with him. Byron seemingly escaped unscathed, but there was some damage to his car that affected his performance. This amplified when he attempted to draft later in the race, losing control and hitting the wall.

“I didn’t have any steering,” he added. “The further I got down the track, I just kept turning to the right. I didn’t have any steering. So I was just trying to get slowed down. I was hoping that I would just get back to pit road, but then I got clocked.”

While he did not expect to win the race with the damage, the Hendrick Motorsports driver did expect to finish within the top five, as he further revealed. But his race ended with just three laps to go on the white flag.

This has been Byron’s story this year so far. The HMS drivers haven’t had the best season start, and the team, including Byron, is struggling.

William Byron’s struggle

For the past two seasons, William Byron has been the first driver to qualify for the playoffs. He won two consecutive Daytona 500s, and this was expected to be a three-peat. But he only finished in 12th place.

But the concern seems to be growing for Byron. He was a strong title contender last year, winning multiple races and making it up to the Championship 4. One of his best seasons, losing only one position in the final standings, came in 2024.

With the Chase format returning this season, Byron was understood to be at an advantage because of how consistent he remained throughout the season last year. But so far, his performance hasn’t been very promising. He dropped to 13th place in the standings with his DNF at Atlanta. Moreover, Byron hasn’t led a single lap so far in the season.

While the season has only started, all the Hendrick Motorsports drivers seem to be facing some trouble.

Apart from Chase Elliott, who was in winning contention at Daytona and ultimately finished 4th, everyone else has underperformed. At Atlanta, Elliott finished 11th, Byron finished 28th, Kyle Larson ended at 32nd, while Alex Bowman finished 23rd. Let’s see how the team changes things at COTA.