It’s the No. 11 team’s first top 10 of the season
Rockingham, N.C. (April 19, 2025) – Mulligans come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes, a mulligan comes to a man with a mullet.
Josh Williams, driver of the No. 11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet, scored an eighth-place finish on Saturday at Rockingham Speedway. The team’s first top 10 of the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season came after multiple setbacks tested its resolve, but for Williams, the result was one he knew was within reach before the green flag dropped for the first time.
“I think we should’ve been running in the top 10 way earlier than we were,” he said. “We had a fast car, but obviously, some things you can’t plan for change the deal.”
Those unexpected deviations came before the race reached the halfway point. Williams was moving upwards through the first stage and middle of the second stage, even reaching the top 10 by lap 108. It was then, however, that the team faced its first major test: Williams was caught speeding on pit road and was sent to the rear of the field on the ensuing restart.
After taking the green flag, Williams was tagged by the spinning No. 18 on the right side, necessitating repairs to the No. 11 Chevy. The team was placed on the Damaged Vehicle Policy, which it easily cleared, but it had to continue tinkering with the No. 11’s side skirt on additional stops; its deformation covered part of the car’s exhaust pipes.
The speeding penalty, nor the damage, afflicted the No. 11 team’s efforts. In fact, no penalty could park Williams on this day.
“We survived, for sure,” he said. “Obviously, the pit road penalty didn’t help us, and neither did getting hit in the door. Coming from the back a few times, making good strategy calls, and missing other guys’ wrecks gives us a solid top 10 to build off of.”
Williams, who has been overcoming a battle with pneumonia in the opening months of the NXS season, attributes much of the year’s relative stability to commonality amongst the No. 11 team, specifically with crew chief Eddie Pardue.
“I think the biggest thing is that me and Eddie had a talk last week about the adjustments that we need to make, how far we need to go to keep up with the car on the race track,” Williams said. “I think we accomplished that.”
“Anytime you’re working with somebody, the more you work with them, the more you learn what they like and don’t like,” Pardue said. “Different adjustments during the race, when and how to deliver information… We’re always building and figuring that communication out.”
Williams is giddy about the opportunity that lies ahead of him next weekend when the NASCAR rodeo travels to Talladega Superspeedway. After coming so close to winning his first-ever race in the NXS there in 2024, he wants a chance at retribution for a great “what if?”
“We could’ve wrecked on lap one today, and I’d still guarantee you that we’d be doing everything we could to win there,” he said.
Needless to say, after a great result at The Rock, the Mullet Man is ready for another dance with ‘Dega.
About Kaulig Racing
Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time, multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has earned 27 NXS wins, made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started, and won two regular-season championships. In 2021, the team competed in select NCS events, before expanding to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and adding a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. Since its first NCS start in 2021, the team has earned two wins. Kaulig Racing is currently fielding two full-time entries in the NCS and continues to field three full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.
