Joe Gibbs Racing’s William Sawalich came alive in the final stage to take over the lead and grab his first career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday (April 4).
Sawalich led 80 laps to win his 42nd career start in the series. He came into the race outside the Chase in 14th place in the driver standings, 21 points behind the final spot.
“It means everything, it was obviously a tough year last year and a tough start to the year this year,” Sawalich told The CW post-race. “These boys mean everything to me, they were here with me through everything.”
Sawalich’s teammate Brandon Jones finished second, while JR Motorsports drivers Justin Allgaier, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil completed the top five. Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg, and Corey Day rounded out the top 10 in sixth through 10th, respectively.
Sawalich, Jones, Allgaier and Caruth all qualified for the Dash 4 Cash race at Bristol Motor Speedway, with the broadcast reporting that Caruth will pilot the No. 32 for Jordan Anderson Racing.
Day started on the pole and dominated the first half of the race, sweeping both stages and leading 118 laps. However, differing strategies and slow pit stops put him back in traffic in the final stage and he never returned to the front.
“We just had a couple bad pit stops there, lost three or four spots on each one,” Day said on pit road post-race. “That’s enough at this place, it’s just so narrow and so hard to pass. Your balance gets worse the further you get back in dirty air, so just kind of struggled with that.”
Brent Crews led 30 laps but finished 26th, a lap down after pitting for a tire issue late in the race. A suspension issue ended Jesse Love’s chances of competing for the win as he led 15 laps but had to settle for a 27th-place finish, two laps down.
Also, debutant Garrett “Cleetus McFarland” Mitchell brought out the final caution of the day when he spun on lap 207. After finishing fourth in the ARCA Menards Series East race earlier at The Rock, Mitchell wound up six laps down in 32nd place.
Allgaier extended his lead in the driver standings up to 126 points over Love in second place. Sawalich jumped up to 11th in points, currently holding a spot in the Chase.
NOAPS Rockingham Results
The O’Reilly Series will return to action on Saturday, April 11, at Bristol for the Suburban Propane 300 at 7:30 p.m. ET for the ninth race of the season. Coverage of this race will be broadcast on The CW.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
As an Elko Speedway alumn congrats William. If CW can’t send announcers to the track don’t expect me to watch it live.