William Sawalich earned his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career victory after dominating the final stage of the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday, April 4.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, led twice for 80 of the 250-scheduled laps. He started in 14th place and methodically carved his way to the front. After recording a pair of top-five results between the event’s first two stage periods at Rockingham, Sawalich commenced the third and final stage period by briefly challenging Jesse Love for the lead, and despite leading a single lap, he was outdueled by the latter.
During a brief restart with 79 laps remaining, Sawalich overtook teammate Brent Crews and maintained the top spot at Rockingham through two late-race cautions and restarts. This included the event’s final restart with 38 laps remaining. With the lead in his possession, Sawalich never looked back as he beat teammate Brandon Jones by eight-tenths of a second to achieve his first elusive victory in his second full-time campaign in the O’Reilly division.
On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup at Rockingham on Friday, April 3. Corey Day claimed his first pole position with a pole-winning lap at 148.963 mph in 22.717 seconds. Day was joined on the front row with Jesse Love, the latter of whom clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 148.545 mph in 22.781 seconds.
Before the event, the following names, which included Garrett Smithley, Joey Gase and Austin Green, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event at Rockingham commenced, Corey Day launched his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead from the outside lane through the frontstretch. Day proceeded to lead Jesse Love through the first two turns while Parker Retzlaff and Justin Allgaier briefly got sideways after the former made contact with the latter entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out and jostled from the backstretch, Day cycled back to the frontstretch and led the first lap.
Over the next four laps, Day’s early advantage stood at three-tenths of a second over Love while third-place Allgaier followed suit by seven-tenths of a second. Behind, Taylor Gray and Carson Kvapil occupied the remaining top-five spots at Rockingham over Retzlaff, Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed and Brent Crews. Meanwhile, Day grew his lead to seven-tenths of a second over Love at the Lap 10 mark.
Through the Lap 20 mark, Day was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Love. Allgaier, Kvapil and Gray trailed by two seconds. Meanwhile, sixth-place Retzlaff and seventh-place Jones trailed by three seconds. Mayer, Creed, Crews, William Sawalich, Ryan Sieg, Austin Hill, Rajah Caruth, Anthony Alfredo and Dean Thompson trailed by single digits, respectively.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Clements trailed in 17th place by more than 10 seconds along with Harrison Burton, Kyle Sieg and Brennan Poole. Sammy Smith was mired in 21st place ahead of Lavar Scott, Blaine Perkins, Patrick Staropoli and Jeb Burton. Amid the battles at the front, Cleetus McFarland, who got loose through the first two turns amid an early three-wide battle with Nathan Byrd and Josh Bilicki, was mired at the tail end of the lead lap category in 36th place while Day stretched his lead to more than a second by Lap 25.
Just past the Lap 30 mark, Day led by two seconds over Love. Behind, teammates Allgaier and Kvapil battled for third place. Retzlaff fended off Jones to retain sixth place while Gray maintained fifth place. In addition, Sawalich cracked the top 10 as he was up into ninth place. Mayer dropped to 12th place. Meanwhile, Day, who was navigating through lapped traffic, retained the lead by nearly two seconds over Love on Lap 40.
On Lap 48, the event’s first caution flew when Blake Lothain spun toward the outside wall in Turn 2. He then slid down the track and was dodged by oncoming traffic. The caution occurred as 11 competitors, including McFarland, were lapped by the leader, Day. During the event’s first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Day opted to pit. The rest, which included Taylor Gray, Anthony Alfredo, Sammy Smith and Kyle Sieg, remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 54 featured Gray rocketing ahead of the field from the inside lane as he was pushed by both Sammy Smith and Day. At the launch, Day wasted no time diving beneath Smith and assuming the runner-up spot through the first two turns. The field behind fanned out and jostled for spots through the backstretch. Amid the battles, Gray led the next two laps until Day used his four fresh tires to reassume the top spot on Lap 57.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Day captured his first O’Reilly career stage victory. Gray maintained second place over teammate Jones, Allgaier and teammate Sawalich. Love, Sammy Smith, teammate Brent Crews, Caruth and Retzlaff were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 27 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, some led by Gray and including Sammy Smith, Alfredo, Jeb Burton, Kyle Sieg and Patrick Staropoli pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Day remained on the track. Meanwhile, Mayer, who was dealing with a mechanical issue to his No. 41 Audibel/Haas Factory Team Chevrolet Camaro entry, lost two laps to the leaders as he pitted to have the issue inspected.
The second stage period started on Lap 69 as Day and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, Day used the inside lane to muscle ahead through the first two turns while the field behind fanned out through the backstretch. Despite having Jones close within his rearview mirror, Day led the next lap. Behind, Sawalich battled Allgaier, teammate Crews and Love for third place before the former motored ahead during the proceeding lap. Love would then drop to seventh place as Caruth overtook him while Day led by three-tenths of a second by Lap 75.
At the Lap 90 mark, Day, who has led since the start of the second stage period, was leading by four-tenths of a second over Jones while Jones’ two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Sawalich and Crews, trailed by a second in third and fourth, respectively. Behind, Allgaier trailed the lead by two seconds in fifth place while Love, Caruth, Jeremy Clements, Kvapil and Retzlaff occupied top-10 spots over Harrison Burton, Ryan Sieg, Creed, Austin Hill and Sammy Smith. Meanwhile, Gray was mired in 17th place behind Alfredo.
Three laps later, the caution flew when Clements, who was racing in ninth place and battling both Caruth and Kvapil for more, got loose and spun from the top to the bottom of the track through the first two turns. During this caution period, some that included Love, Ryan Sieg and Clements pitted while the rest led by Day remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 99, Day motored ahead from Jones, Sawalich and the rest of the field. Day led the next lap, Lap 100, over a trio of Joe Gibbs Racing competitors that consisted of Jones, Sawalich and Crews while Allgaier reeled in on Crews from fifth place. Behind, Caruth was in sixth place before he was overtaken by teammate Kvapil. Caruth would then maintain seventh place in front of Retzlaff, Creed, Harrison Burton and Austin Hill while Day retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over Jones on Lap 105.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Day cruised to the second stage victory of his O’Reilly career and of Saturday’s event at The Rock. Sawalich trailed in second place by four-tenths of a second and he was followed by Allgaier and teammate Crews while teammate Jones fell back to fifth place. Caruth, Retzlaff, Creed, Clements and Kvapil were scored in the top 10, respectively, while 27 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Day pitted for service while Love remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Ryan Sieg exited pit road first after he only took fuel to his entry while Sawalich, Jones, Crews, Allgaier and Day, all of whom pitted for both fresh tires and fuel, followed suit, respectively. Amid the pit stops, Clements was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 121 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Love and Ryan Sieg occupied the front row. At the start, Love launched ahead from the inside lane until Sawalich drew beneath Love in a bid for the lead through the first two turns. Amid his side-by-side battle with Love for a full circuit, Sawalich led the next lap as both drivers continued to duel through the first two turns. Then through the backstretch, Crews made a move beneath teammate Sawalich. This allowed Love to motor ahead entering Turn 3 as Crews then made slight contact against Sawalich’s No. 18 Soundgear Toyota Supra entry. The contact caused Sawalich to drift high and drop to fourth as both Crews and Ryan Sieg overtook him. Meanwhile, Love motored ahead to lead the next lap.
With 115 laps remaining, Love was leading by four-tenths of a second over Crews while Allgaier, Sawalich, Ryan Sieg, Caruth, Jones, Day, Retzlaff and Kvapil followed suit, respectively. Seven laps later, Crews navigated past Love to assume the lead for the first time. While Crews proceeded to lead with 100 laps remaining, Allgaier trailed in the runner-up spot by eight-tenths of a second while Sawalich, Caruth and Jones were up in the top five, respectively. Meanwhile, Day, who endured a slow pit service during the second stage’s break period, was mired in seventh place behind Retzlaff and Ryan Sieg was scored in 10th place ahead of Sammy Smith while Love had dropped to 13th place.
Down to the final 90 laps of the event, Crews stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier while Caruth was reeling in Sawalich for third place. Behind, Day trailed the lead by seven seconds in eighth place while he also trailed Jones, Retzlaff and teammate Kvapil for more while Love, who pitted to address a loose wheel, was mired three laps behind in 31st place.
Four laps later, the caution flew when Alfredo spun off of Turn 4 and shredded his right-front fender as he nursed his entry back to pit road. During this caution period, the lead lap field led by Crews pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Crews maintained the lead by exiting pit road first while Allgaier, Clements, Sawalich and Caruth followed suit, respectively.
The next restart with 79 laps remaining only last a single lap before the caution returned. The caution was due to Clements getting hit by Ryan Sieg and sliding through the first two turns. Compared to the first incident on Lap 93, Clements hit the outside wall and damaged his rear end before he spun back down the track and was dodged by oncoming traffic. At the moment of caution, Sawalich, who used the one-lap shootout to get beneath teammate Crews and overtake him through the first two turns and the backstretch, was leading Crews while Allgaier, teammate Jones and Creed were in the top five ahead of Gray, Caruth, Kvapil, Retzlaff, Austin Hill and Day while Mayer took his entry to the garage.
When the event restarted under green with 71 laps remaining, Sawalich maintained the lead over teammate Crews while a three-wide scuffle that involved Caruth and Retzlaff ensued through the backstretch. Amid the late action, the field managed to cycle back to the frontstretch under green flag conditions as Sawalich also maintained the lead over teammates Crews and Jones, Creed and Allgaier.
Down to the final 60 laps of the event, Sawalich, who has led since the previous restart, stretched his late lead to more than a second over teammate Crews while teammate Jones, Creed and Allgaier all trailed in the top five, respectively, by three seconds. Behind, Kvapil was up into sixth place ahead of Gray, Hill, Retzlaff and Caruth while Ryan Sieg, Harrison Burton, Brennan Poole, Sammy Smith and Day were mired in the top 15, respectively.
Fifteen laps later, the caution flew at Rockingham when Cleetus McFarland, who was racing four laps down and outside the top-30 mark, got loose and spun his No. 33 Tommy’s Express Car Wash Chevrolet Camaro entry in Turn 4. At the time of caution, Sawalich stabilized his advantage to more than a second over teammate Crews while Creed muscled his way up to third place as the latter trailed by nearly three seconds.
As the event restarted with 38 laps remaining, Sawalich fended off teammate Crews entering the first turn to lead. With Crews fending off teammate Jones and Creed for the runner-up spot, the field fanned out as Sawalich led the next lap. Over the next two laps, Jones overtook both Creed and Crews to move into the runner-up spot.
During the following five laps at Rockingham, Creed overtook Crews for third place while Allgaier, Gray and Kvapil all overtook Crews, who reported a potential tire issue. At the same time, Sawalich maintained the lead by nearly two seconds. Crews would then make an unscheduled pit stop under green flag conditions with 29 laps remaining, but he lost two laps by the time he returned on the track.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Sawalich was leading by nearly two seconds over teammate Jones while Creed, Allgaier and Kvapil were scored in the top five ahead of Caruth, Gray, Retzlaff, Austin Hill, Ryan Sieg and Sammy Smith, while Day was mired in 12th place. Amid Jones’ effort in chopping the deficit by four-tenths of a second, Sawalich continued to lead by more than a second with less than 20 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Sawalich continued to lead by one-and-a-half seconds over teammate Jones. Third-place Allgaier trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, fourth-place Creed and fifth-place Kvapil trailed by four seconds apiece ahead of Caruth, Gray, Retzlaff, Hill and Ryan Sieg. Sawalich maintained the lead at Rockingham by a second with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started at Rockingham, Sawalich remained in the lead by a second over teammate Jones. With Jones unable to reel in and make up the deficit, Sawalich was able to smoothly navigate around The Rock and lapped traffic smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag by eight-tenths of a second.
With the victory, Sawalich, who won in his 42nd start, became the 183rd competitor overall to win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division and he became the 15th competitor overall to record a first O’Reilly career victory while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also joins David Pearson, Ward Burton, Ernie Irvan and Matt Kenseth as competitors to record a first O’Reilly career victory at The Rock.
Sawalich’s Rockingham victory marked the first win for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota team since Sammy Smith won at Phoenix Raceway in March 2023 and the first for crew chief Jeff Meendering since the latter won with Chandler Smith at Richmond Raceway in March 2024. It was also Joe Gibbs Racing’s first O’Reilly victory since winning at Martinsville Speedway with Taylor Gray in October 2025.
Sawalich’s Rockingham victory was also a redemptive moment for the Minnesota native at The Rock after he was involved in an early controversial accident by wrecking the lapped competitor of Katherine Legge and collecting veteran Kasey Kahne during last year’s event.
“I mean, [the win] means everything,” Sawalich said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “It was obviously a tough year last year and a tough start this year. These [No. 18] boys mean everything to me. They were here with me through everything in my family. It feels good to get it done here in Rockingham, in front of an awesome crowd. Thank you everyone for coming out. Our Soundgear GR Supra was on rails today. [The car was] Good in stage one, stage two and obviously, amazing in clean air.”
“What a hard-fought battle today,” Jones said. “I left Martinsville a little frustrated with myself last week. We just weren’t quite aggressive enough at times. Today, I was really adamant on I’m going to be super aggressive today. I’m going to take all the runs I can get. I’m going to put people in bad situations if I can and try to go forward. I think we did a really good job of it. We kept fighting both sides of the balance today. [Crew chief] Sam [McAulay] did a really good job at the end of taking all my feedback and making a car capable of winning. It just was a matter of trying to get some track position and [Sawalich] got such a big jump and a big lead on that last restart that it was hard to catch him. Congrats to them. I know it’s been a long time coming for the No. 18 group. I’m hungry. I want one [win]. We’re really close.”
Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth finished third and fourth, respectively. The JR Motorsports duo, along with race winner Sawalich and runner-up Jones, will contend for the first Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2026 season. The Dash 4 Cash program begins next Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Carson Kvapil finished in fifth place in the O’Reilly event at Rockingham, as Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg and Corey Day completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Austin Hill, who was racing in ninth place with two laps remaining, dropped to 11th place in front of Sammy Smith. In addition, Jeremy Clements, Brent Crews and Jesse Love finished 25th, 26th and 27th, respectively, while Cleetus McFarland settled in 32nd place in his O’Reilly debut.
There were eight lead changes for six different leaders during the race. The event at Rockingham also featured seven cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 21 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the eighth event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season at Rockingham, Justin Allgaier continues to lead the standings by 126 points over Jesse Love, 131 over Sheldon Creed, 145 over Austin Hill and 150 over Corey Day.
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Results at Rockingham:
- William Sawalich, 80 laps led
- Brandon Jones
- Justin Allgaier, one lap led
- Rajah Caruth
- Carson Kvapil
- Sheldon Creed
- Taylor Gray, six laps led
- Parker Retzlaff
- Ryan Sieg
- Corey Day, 118 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
- Austin Hill
- Sammy Smith
- Harrison Burton
- Brennan Poole
- Lavar Scott
- Nathan Byrd
- Jeb Burton
- Alex Labbe
- Josh Williams
- JJ Yeley
- Andrew Patterson
- Ryan Ellis, one lap down
- Blaine Perkins, one lap down
- Anthony Alfredo, one lap down
- Jeremy Clements, one lap down
- Brent Crews, two laps down, 30 laps led
- Jesse Love, two laps down, 15 laps led
- Dean Thompson, two laps down
- Garrett Smithley, four laps down
- Blake Lothian, five laps down
- Joey Gase, five laps down
- Cleetus McFarland, six laps down
- Austin Green, seven laps down
- Patrick Staropoli, eight laps down
- Dawson Cram, nine laps down
- Josh Bilicki, nine laps down
- Kyle Sieg – OUT, Electrical
- Sam Mayer – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, for the Suburban Propane 300. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 11, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
