Eden Prairie Minnesota native William Sawalich is one step closer to his goal of being the first Minnesota born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. Sawalich won his first race in the second division of NASCAR now called the O’Reilly Auto Parts series on Easter weekend on the famed grounds at Rockingham Speedway. Dean Reller and I had the opportunity to catch up with William at Joe Gibbs racing headquarters recently in Huntersville North Carolina. “It’s still hard to believe,” said Sawalich “A lot of hard work has been put into that and a lot of years racing, growing up in Minnesota, moving down here to North Carolina in 2021 and to have the opportunity to drive these really cool race cars.”
Sawalich is still very young, he is still a teenager until October, but he has come a long way in a very short amount of time. As a youth, he raced at the Little Elko quarter midget track for three or four years, “that is where I spent my weekends growing up, that was my life, it’s where I fell in love with the sport,” said Sawalich. “When I was there the car counts were dwindling down a bit, I heard the car counts are back up and that makes me want to come back and check it out.”
Sawalich then made the transition to competing in a National level, he travelled with Josh and his son Jensen Vadnais on what was then called the USAC .25 tour for two years. “Jensen was kind of like a driver coach for me, he was in quarter midgets for a year longer, he helped me out a lot and his dad took our cars everywhere.”
After some success William moved up to the more powerful motorcycle motored INEX Legend Car division and raced weekly at Elko Speedway. “I got one win in a Legend Car there and I still remember it, Tim Brockhouse was right behind me in the closing laps, it was really cool to race there, it’s one of my favorite places to race a Legend Car, I’d love to come back and race at ELKO again later this summer,” said Sawalich.
“You have to have good people to help you, you can’t do it by yourself, maybe you can but it would be really tough,” said William. “Starting out we had no idea what we were doing, we had great people at ELKO including Gordy and Tristan Swanson who helped us out a lot, we are so thankful for those people. I knew Tristan was that talented, we travelled with Legend Cars throughout Wisconsin in 2020 and 2021 when Covid was happening and unfortunately ELKO wasn’t open, he would wax everyone nearly every race, especially at the Dells. I know he is still doing the same thing now plus running some Trucks and Supers so it’s cool that we both were able to move up and do our own things,” said Sawalich.
William then transitioned to the big cars and moved down to North Carolina and raced full time in 2021, “Growing up I tried to do every race possible,” said Sawalich “We raced Supers, Pro Late Models, Late Model stocks sometimes three cars on a weekend, I was always super busy in a Late Model trying to learn.” William had 13 wins in 2021 on some of the most historic tracks of the South including Hickory, Five Flags, the Motor Mile, ACE, Tri-County and many others. He was named the 2022 MN Asphalt Driver of the year.
He then moved up to racing nationally in NASCAR, William won the ARCA Menards East Series in both 2023 and 2024. He also was able to come back to his beloved home track and race. “It was fun to relive Elko Speedway when we returned to run the ARCA cars. The first year I raced there in 2023 we didn’t get the win, we were so close but couldn’t get it done. The second year we were fast and led the whole thing but got taken out by a lapped car,” said Sawalich. “I’m like gosh, I’ve got to win this race, I tried to do everything I could but the car wasn’t good at all, it had a little bit of damage,” There was a caution flag with less than 10 laps to go in the race but the weather was ominous. “We all thought it was going to rain, I thought if we could get just one more restart I could get them, they gave us a chance on the restart and we got it.” The margin of victory was 0.011 seconds, with three cars crossing the finish line together, it was named one of the most thrilling finishes in ARCA racing history as William Sawalich edged Lavar Scott and Kris Wright in a three-wide finish at the line. “It was cool to get it done and then the burnout in front of the home crowd was really special to me,” said Sawalich.
2025 was the first year for Sawalich in what is now called the NASCAR O’Reilly auto parts series, he is racing for Joe Gibbs racing in the iconic #18 car made famous by Kyle Busch. He scored 9 Top 10’s in a transition year, now he was finally the age to be allowed to race on the bigger tracks, so getting experience on tracks on the downforce tracks and Super Speedways have been an important step. “My first ever super speedway start was in a Truck with Tri-Con and I ended up getting the pole so, I was scared, I had no idea what to do, it was cool getting the pole and the exposure but really I wanted to start mid-pack to get to learn the air back there but it’s really cool in the O’Rilley cars, how they draft and there is a little bit of a bubble. Runs come a little harder and you can push a little bit. It's really hard being out front, you kind of see nothing, just a whole pack of angry bees behind you. You honestly look in your rear view more than out front, your spotter will tell you the gaps of the cars and how he’s pushing the car in front of you because you can't be on them if they are also on somebody, you have to watch lane changes and what line is starting to form out back,” said Sawalich.
2026 has been a good year with the big win at Rockingham making William the first Minnesota born driver to win in the NASCAR National Big Three series. He also has recently scored consistent Top 5 finishes at big tracks like Dover and Charlotte and moved into the Top 10 of the standings.
Sawalich lists many people who he considers as a mentor but he specifically pointed out two former drivers. 2011 Daytona 500 Champion Trevor Bayne and Blake Koch who helps him out as driver coaches. “We go on IRacing and go on the track we are going to next and try some things, they help me in the simulator and give me some notes prerace.” Recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Harvick is also helping Sawalich “I’m in his management company now, so I learn a lot from him, he obviously has a lot of experience at all the track we go to,” said Sawalich.
It was extremely nice for William to take time out of his busy schedule to meet up with us at Joe Gibbs racing, he is truly the type of driver that is easy to cheer for. Look for the #18 SoundGear Toyota when you watch on TV. I would also recommend any race fan to take a trip to North Carolina and tour the race shops while also going to a race at one of the many iconic Local Racing series tracks in the area. We went to Wake County in Raleigh and Caraway Speedway in Sophia, both incredible short tracks. Our experience at the Madhouse Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem was cut short by rain, but was still fulfilling. It was a trip we thoroughly enjoyed and are planning on repeating again very soon.
Leave a Reply