William Sawalich has signed a one-year contract extension to continue to drive the No. 18 SoundGear Toyota Supra entry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) for the 2027 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season.
The news comes as the 19-year-old Sawalich from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is currently campaigning in his second full-time season in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with JGR. Through 22-scheduled events, he recorded a victory at Rockingham Speedway in early April, which was also his first ever in the series. Sawalich has also registered a pole at Bristol Motor Speedway in early April, six top-five results, nine top-10 results, 131 laps led and an average-finishing result of 16.6. He is ranked in 13th place in the standings and is seven points below the top-12 cutline to make this year’s Chase with two regular-season events remaining on this year’s schedule.
“I am excited to be returning to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2027,” Sawalich said. “The team has become a family to me since I first started here. We’ve been making great progress this year, so I am excited to continue that into next season.”
Sawalich made his first three career starts in the O’Reilly Series during the final three events of the 2024 season, where he drove JGR’s No. 19 Toyota entry. By then, he was coming off his second consecutive ARCA Menards Series East championship with JGR. During his trio of starts, the Minnesota native recorded his first career pole and finished a season-best 13th place during the season’s final event on the schedule at Phoenix Raceway.
For the 2025 season, Sawalich was named a full-time competitor of JGR’s No. 18 Toyota entry for his first full-time campaign in the O’Reilly Series. During his rookie O’Reilly campaign, he recorded his second career pole at Nashville Superspeedway in late May and notched a pair of runner-up results in back-to-back events at Portland International Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway between mid-August and early September. He also recorded three top-five results, nine top-10 results, 51 laps led and an average-finishing result of 18.9 through 31-scheduled starts.
After being involved in a multi-car accident at Talladega Superspeedway in mid-October that required him to be hospitalized, Sawalich missed the final two events of the 2025 season due to suffering concussion-like symptoms. This resulted in him finishing 18th in the standings before returning for a full-time campaign in 2026.
Through 56 current starts in the O’Reilly Series, Sawalich has accumulated a single victory, three poles, nine top-five results, 18 top-10 results, 182 laps led and an average-finishing result of 18.3 as he continues the pursuit of his first NASCAR national touring series championship.
“William has been part of our racing family at Joe Gibbs Racing for almost four years now, and it’s exciting to watch his continued progress,” Heather Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, said. “He earned his first win in the O’Reilly Series earlier this year at Rockingham, and we expect our 18 team to build off that success for the remainder of this season and into 2027.”
With his plans for next season set, William Sawalich’s 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season continues this upcoming Saturday, August 8, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the HyVee Perks 250. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 5 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM.
