Joe Gibbs Racing is enjoying outstanding success this season in the Cup Series, but it’s also well-positioning itself for the future by developing some of the top NASCAR prospects. That will continue next year following a contract extension signed with a young wheel man.
On Thursday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced that it has signed driver William Sawalich to a contract extension to keep him behind the wheel of the No. 18 car next season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Sawalich, age 19, has had an up-and-down 2026 campaign in the O’Reilly Series. He drove the No. 18 car to his first-ever NASCAR win at the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 on April 4. However, he hasn’t been back to victory lane since and he’s picked up four DNFs this season.
The four DNFs are the biggest reason why he currently sits below The Chase cutline in the OARS right now, 7 points below Taylor Gray for 12th place and 29th below Sam Mayer in 10th place. On the positive side, Sawalich has the sixth-most top-5s (six) and he ranks ninth in laps led (131) among full-time O’Reilly Series drivers this season.
Sawalich did recently make it onto Bob Pockrass’ list of the top NASCAR prospects, sliding into the “25 others to watch” section. While some NASCAR fans have rightfully pointed out Sawalich’s family ties making him a pay-to-race driver, as the son of the president of the billion-dollar Starkey Hearing Technologies company, he has at least performed fairly well this year.
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At a time when even teams like Joe Gibbs Racing face exorbitant costs to run in the O’Reilly Series, Sawalich brings the team funding and he’s shown improvement. While he might not necessarily have a future at the Cup level, he has demonstrated that he can stick around at the second-best series in NASCAR.
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