William Sawalich wins his first NOAPS race – Joe Gibbs Racing Photo
Sawalich, Brandon Jones sweep top-two positions for Joe Gibbs Racing
ROCKINGHAM, NC (April 4, 2026) – William Sawalich scored his first
career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win at Rockingham Speedway on
Saturday evening. Sawalich earned stage points in the first two stages,
before a dominate performance in the final stage – leading 80 (of 250)
laps.
He drove away from his teammate Brandon Jones on the final
restart, and went unchallenged to the checkered flag, which Jones
finishing in second. Sawalich and Jones gave Joe Gibbs Racing their
first 1-2 sweep of the season, and for Jones, it is his second runner-up
finish in the last three races this season (Darlington).
Sawalich and Jones are now Dash 4 Cash eligible at Bristol Motor
Speedway. They will compete against Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth for
$100k next Saturday.
For Toyota, it was the second 1-2 sweep in as many days, after TRICON
Garage teammates Corey Heim and Kaden Honeycutt took the top-two spots
in the Truck Series race from Rockingham Speedway on Friday.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS)
Rockingham Speedway
Race 8 of 33 – 230 miles, 250 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, WILLIAM SAWALICH
2nd, BRANDON JONES
_3rd, Justin Allgaier*_
_4th,__ Rajah Caruth__*_
_5th, Carson Kvapil*_
7th, TAYLOR GRAY
13th, HARRISON BURTON
26th, BRENT CREWS
28th, DEAN THOMPSON
_*non-Toyota driver _
TOYOTA QUOTES
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 SoundGear Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How rewarding is this moment after all of the trials and tribulations
you went through?
“It means everything. Honestly, tough year last year and tough start
to the year this year. These boys mean everything to me. They were here
with me through everything and my family. Gosh, it feels good to get it
done here in Rockingham, in front of an awesome crowd. Thank you to
everyone for coming out. Our SoundGear GR Supra was on rails today. Good
in stage one and stage two, and obviously amazing in clean air.”
What were you trying to remind yourself as you went through the lap
traffic?
“Well, funny enough, lap traffic took me out last year, so it was
running through my head a little bit. I just studied the race last year
and just calmed down and everything was fine.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards/Pelonis Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
_How would you describe the race you put together?_
“What a hard fought battle today. I want to thank Menards and Pelonis
for being our GR Supra today. It has been cool to get them a couple of
really good runs here the last few weeks. I left Martinsville a little
frustrated at myself last week. We weren’t quite aggressive enough at
times, so today, I was super adamant on being super aggressive. I am
going to take all of the runs I can get. I’m going to put people in
bad situations, if I can, and just move forward. I think we did a really
good job of it. We kept fighting both sides of it with balance today.
Sam (McAuley, crew chief) did a great job taking all of my feedback and
making a car, I think, capable of winning. It was just a matter of
trying to get some track position, and he got such a big restart on that
last restart that it was hard to catch him. Congrats to them. I know it
has been a long time coming for the 18 group. Happy for Jeff Meendering
(crew chief, William Sawalich) and William (Sawalich) and all of those
guys. I’m hungry. I want one. We are really close.”
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
_How was it working back through the field all day? _
“It was tough. Track position was pretty huge today. Just tough to
pass, but really proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, TOYOTA RACING
– thanks to them for bringing a really fast Operation 300 Toyota GR
Supra. Big thanks to Black’s Tire for coming on board this weekend.
Good points weekend for the 54 team. We’ve struggled the last few
weeks just being able to finish races, so good step forward here and we
will go to Bristol.”
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