William Sawalich made a major gain towards his 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase hopes with a strong fifth-place result in the Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on Saturday, July 25.
The two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, made his second O’Reilly career start at IMS this season after finishing in sixth place during his first start at the venue a year ago. After taking the green flag from his ninth-place qualifying position, Sawalich spent the event’s first stage period within the top-10 mark. As the early laps progressed, he he navigated his way up to fourth place when the first stage period concluded on Lap 30. By then, he racked up seven stage points.
Sawalich restarted on the front row alongside Ross Chastain when the second stage period commenced on Lap 36. At the start, the former dueled with the latter from the outside lane through the first two turns. Sawalich then utilized a push from pole-sitter Sheldon Creed to motor his No. 18 SoundGear/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra entry ahead of Chastain and lead the following two laps before Chastain reassumed the lead through the backstretch. While pinned on the outside lane, Sawalich dropped from first to fifth within half a lap, but he remained inside of the top-10 mark. Amid a three-lap shootout to conclude the second stage period, he accumulated three extra stage points by settling in eighth place.
Restarting in fifth place when the event’s third and final stage period commenced with 34 laps remaining, Sawalich got forced wide by Carson Kvapil amid Sam Mayer’s bold three-wide move beneath the latter two, with Sawalich nearly dropping out of the top-10 mark as he settled in eighth place during the next lap. For the event’s remainder, Sawalich gained three spots in the leaderboard to fifth place, a spot in which he took as he trailed the lead by more than eight seconds.
With his fifth-place result, Sawalich notched his sixth top-five result and his ninth top-10 result through 22-scheduled O’Reilly events in 2026. He also achieved his highest-finishing result at IMS by two spots. Amid the disappointment of not having enough pace to reel in the front-runners, Sawalich was left pleased with his top-five result.
“It was a good race,” Sawalich, who won his first O’Reilly career event at Rockingham Speedway in April, said. “I kind of stayed in the top 10 the whole race. [I] Struggled for short-run speed. Our SoundGear Supra was really good on the long run. That’s kind of where we’ve can capitalize, but the short runs were just hurting us, not being there at the end.”
Prior to IMS, Sawalich was ranked in 14th place in the 2026 driver’s standings and he trailed the top-12 cutline to make the Chase by 21 points. After IMS, the Minnesota native jumped to 13th place and is only seven points below the cutline with two regular-season events remaining on this year’s calendar. Having missed the postseason battle and not contend for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ title during his rookie campaign in 2025, Sawalich remains poised to extend his strong result at Indianapolis for the upcoming events at Iowa Speedway and Daytona International Speedway, respectively, that would enable him to secure a Chase berth in 2026.
“I think we just need to do [this performance at Indianapolis] again,” Sawalich added. “Building a comfortable gap going into Daytona. Anything can happen there, even if we’re down in points going in. You never know know going in there.”
William Sawalich’s pursuit to make the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase resumes on August 8 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Hy-Vee Perks 250. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM.
