Sonoma, Calif. – It was, without question, an extremely eventful 24 hours for William Sawalich, who followed up a thrilling victory in the ARCA Menards Series West race on Friday (July 11) with a career-best, third-place Xfinity Series finish at Sonoma Raceway in just his 22nd start the following afternoon.
“Yeah, it was a good day,” Sawalich said to Frontstretch post-race. “We had the speed to run third all day, but the front two were in a league of their own. We had speed to run with them for about ten laps, but after that they just kind of slowly started creeping away. The Starkey Soundgear Toyota Supra was really good today.”
The previous evening, also at Sonoma Raceway, Sawalich had won a thrilling three-wide finish, beating out Christian Eckes and Alon Day after a last-lap pass inside of turn 11. Day remarked to Frontstretch that Sawalich came from nowhere “like a missile” for his fourth victory in nine ARCA Menards Series West efforts.
On Saturday (July 12), Sawalich finished behind winner Connor Zilisch and runner-up Shane van Gisbergen.
Sawalich had also expressed confidence about the Xfinity race in the ARCA post-race winner’s press conference, noting his solid starting spot.
“We qualified fifth against, SVG and Connor [Zillisch], who are both very good road racers and I feel strongly about our car, tomorrow, especially in the long run,” he said. “We kept getting faster and faster through our practice, and just getting these extra reps today definitely helps, everything tomorrow just for me to automatically get a rhythm at the start of the green flag.”
And in a rookie Xfinity Series season that it is fair to characterize as being somewhat up and down, rhythm from the drop off the green and ultimately a career-best finish was just what the doctor ordered for the Joe Gibbs Racing 18-year old.
Notwithstanding a 37th place run on the Chicago Street Course after electrical issues, Sawalich has shown good form on the tracks where they turn turn left and right.
He started out the year with a ninth-place run at Circuit of the Americas and finished sixth a few weeks back at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, most recently adding his third-place run in Northern California’s picturesque wine country.
“Absolutely, yeah, our road course program has been pretty good this year,” Sawalich said, “so I can’t thank the guys enough for all their preparation to be able to do that.”
Most importantly, his third-place finish behind two elite road course racers, combined with his fine victory the night before, gives Sawalich a much-needed jolt of confidence heading toward the playoffs.
“Absolutely, yeah, it’s been a good weekend to get the confidence back up,” he said. “I mean I definitely do good on road courses and all the work I’ve put in is finally coming together.”
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.