TOYOTA RACING – William Sawalich
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Quotes
BRISTOL, TENN. (April 11, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race from Bristol Motor Speedway.
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 SoundGear Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
How did you and your team celebrate last week’s win at Rockingham?
“The only celebration we did was a little pizza dinner after the race with the friends and family in Mooresville. That was about it, we were back the SIM on Monday and back working out, the normal routine, so back to the grind.”
There was a video of your Dad celebrating the win back at home. What did that mean to see your Dad and your whole family so happy for you?
“Obviously I wish he could have been there at the track, my Mom was there at the track so that was cool to have her there on Easter weekend. He was back in Minnesota cheering me on. Seeing the videos, it was weird seeing my Dad cry, but it was a cool video that he shared. Family in this sport means everything and how much they support me, I’m really thankful for it.”
What has changed with you behind the scenes from last year to this year with the results you have had?
“I think comfortability with the car was a huge part of it and confidence. Last year at Sonoma, got the ARCA win and that boosted my confidence for the Xfinity race, then we got third there. From there we just really had good runs and keeping the momentum up. The start of this year was good, we were strong at Daytona, then had some back luck and some wrecks at Atlanta, Phoenix and also at Daytona. Then these short tracks, we are really good at. Martinsville, we didn’t get the result we wanted but we were still fast and contending for a top 10 and then Rockingham starting with practice I knew we had a winning car so we had to capitalize. We are figuring some stuff out with the car that suit me better and makes it better for me to drive.”
It seems like luck has not been on side, do you think your win last week is starting to turn that around?
“It’s tough to say if that happened, but we knew it was going to come at some point. We always had the speed, we just had to be up front and have a perfect race. Our pit crew is amazing, one of the best on pit road week every weekend, they are always getting me spots on pit road and getting track position even if we are behind. They are definitely lifting the team up a bit and they were on it last weekend, perfect stops every time. I just had no mistakes on restarts and even during the race runs. Short run, long run, I don’t think we had a mistake except getting into the 19 (Brent Crews) on one of the restarts and we still came back from it. Basically nothing went wrong last weekend and the result was really good.”
What have you learned about yourself over the course of the last year?
“Last year was really tough on me and the team and we got our confidence back halfway through the year. I didn’t really learn much about myself, I still got it. Last week it felt good, like restarts in an ARCA race and you only have to worry about the guy behind you and then some lapped traffic. You go to different tracks and it starts to change a bit.”
Can you talk about your upbringing and what got you here to this level?
“I grew up in Eden Prarie, Minnesota. I started racing at little Elko Speedway in quarter midgets when I was nine. I ran that for four years and traveled nationally with USAC and then moved into big legend cars at big Elko where the ARCA Menards Series runs each year. And then moved to late models in late 2021 with Dennis and Brendan Setzer, they helped me for two years to get my feet wet with super late models and even late model stocks, something they were completely new to. They were great mentors for me and really taught me how to race and basically my racing style is still the same since I started working with. And then moved to ARCA in 2023 with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and had a blast for two years there in ARCA and had three O’Reilly Series starts at the end of 2024 and fulltime in 2025. I had some truck races while I was doing ARCA with TRICON (Garage) just getting some more experience. The jump up to the O’Reilly series was a big jump and I didn’t take off until this year.”
What happened at the beginning of your career that jump started your love for racing?
“I just had a friend who loved NASCAR, he’s actually going to be here today watching. He got me watching the crash highlights and I thought that was cool, but not anymore. I told my parents I wanted to try to get into the sport and they found quarter midgets at Elko and we went to go try it and ended up doing a full year in it and just kept doing it.”
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