In the NASCAR world, no ride’s a smooth ride. As we saw recently in Stage 2 of Saturday’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway. John Hunter Nemechek’s bump-and-spin of Denny Hamlin on Lap 69 triggered a 23-car pileup that brought out a 14-minute red flag. William Byron, who’d blasted off from an 18th-place start to end Stage 1 in P4, was collected in the melee, ending his night in 37th position.

The Lap 69 melee collected 16 drivers. Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, William Byron, Daniel Suárez, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Denny Hamlin, Cody Ware, Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, and Austin Cindric. A total of 29 cars were caught in this Big One. Thus opening the field for non-winners like Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski to contest for the checkered flag.

Beyond wiping out their points for the Quaker State 400, the crash also eliminated every affected driver and dashed each of their dreams of that $1 million payday and advancing to Round 2 of the In-Season Challenge. William Byron, in particular, wasn’t thrilled with the outcome of his race, and he called out his fellow competitors in the interview after the crash.

“Well, you can be aggressive once you get kinda fully up to speed. I mean, obviously, there’s jocking on restarts always, but just try not to crash. So I don’t know why we crashed, the whole field like trying to get up to speed, we look like Truck Series or something.” His unfiltered comparison to NASCAR’s third-tier series lit up social feeds and left fans debating whether a star driver should air such grievances so publicly.

Over the weekend, Byron had entered the inaugural In-Season Challenge seeded 18th, pairing him with Ryan Preece in a $1 million bracket. And his DNF not only cost playoff points but also dashed his shot at the lucrative prize. The combination of lost earnings and a season-best run cut short fueled the sharpness of his post-race remarks.

One fan’s comment on a Reddit post summed up the backlash in blunt terms. “He’s just a whiny p—- because he lost out on a chance for a million dollars.” Byron’s early exit from the bracket not only eliminated his title hopes but also severed his path to the $1 million payday. Turning what began as a high-stakes mid-season storyline into yet another frustration for the reigning points leader.

NASCAR fans call out salty William Byron for Truck Series comments

“I feel like the Trucks have actually raced cleaner than Xfinity so far this year.” Consider the February Fr8 208 at Atlanta. Under full superspeedway rules, the Truck Series ran nearly uninterrupted. With just two cautions beyond the scheduled stage breaks. Proof that even in draft-heavy conditions. The field stayed remarkably intact. Come to June’s Focused Health 250 for Xfinity at the same venue. Fans watched nine cautions for 58 laps (plus an 80-minute lightning delay) slice through the action. Given those numbers, it’s not surprising to hear trucks praised for cleaner racing.

“Buddy forgets he might not have two Daytona 500s without those races playing out the same way this one did.” Byron’s back-to-back Daytona 500 victories in 2024 and 2025 hinged on key late-race wrecks. In both cases, he was well-positioned to slip past major crashes that eliminated the leaders. Had it not been for the caution light rules in the modern era, it is hard to tell if the #24 team would have had the double Daytona 500 triumph.

“I feel like this isn’t fair to trucks lol. Xfinity has been a lot more wreckfest,” added a fan. We know what happened earlier this season in Martinsville during the Xfinity Series race. Sammy Smith took out Taylor Gray on the last lap and sparked a major wreck. That wasn’t it; the likes of Austin Hill were running into their rival with the sheer intention of wrecking them. NASCAR had to sit the drivers down before the Darlington race, essentially schooling them to behave and live up to the reputation of being a driver in the second tier of NASCAR racing.

Not only that, we saw what happened with Kyle Busch and the Cup Series field in Mexico. In fact, Cup Series racing often leads to wild crashes at the Superspeedway track, and it has become the norm. So belittling the Truck Series wasn’t the best approach by the HMS driver. “Trucks literally ran an almost incident-free race at Lime Rock. Meanwhile Cup guys in Mexico felt like a demo derby in the first half,” a fan concluded.

If anything, the Truck Series racing has given out a good storyline this year. Corey Heim and Layne Riggs going at it against each other has sparked the interest of the fans, and the rest of the bunch have kept things interesting.