JGR’s William Sawalich Declared ARCA General Tire 150 Winner After Inclement Weather Cuts Short Phoenix Run

In his very first race of the season, 17-year-old William Sawalich secured the pole, qualifying as the fastest in Phoenix. And as it turns out, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is the General Tire 150 winner. Unfortunately, the ARCA Menards feature on Friday was cut short after the weather played spoilsport after massive thunderstorms and hostile weather forced the sanctioning body to step in and stop the race. On the contrary, fortunately for Sawalich alone, he was declared the winner in the 150-mile fixture.

Sawalich snags win #4 at Phoenix courtesy of rain

The reigning ARCA Menards East Series champion earned his fifth win in Friday’s General Tire 150 by putting in an efficient run from the pole. While the race was not the typical ARCA type, riddled with wrecks and bumps, it featured a clean package compared to other previous events; however, a thunderstorm descending upon a one-mile tri-oval with less than 40 laps remaining forced ARCA officials to call the race early, handing William Sawalich the win.

For the second time since November, William Sawalich wins an ARCA Menards Series race in Phoenix. The only difference from his previous outing was that this time he didn’t finish the race. Only 35 laps remained in the race when the NASCAR development series dropped the red flag due to lightning, and soon the rain started pouring in, and the organization had no choice but to call it quits, handing the win over to Sawalich, who along with Gio Ruggerio led the entire race.

William Sawalich outguns Ruggiero to hand JGR the upper hand

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The scene in NASCAR’s lowest faction of the feeder system, the ARCA Menards Series, is more of a duel between Joe Gibbs Racing and Venturini Motorsports. William Sawalich, in his JGR #18, outdueled Gio Ruggiero, who, in his VMS #20 racecar, was taking it to the 17-year-old. However, in the end, the JGR driver prevailed and took home the win in a weather-shortened event at Phoenix Raceway.

By winning, the reigning champion picked up the fifth win of his main series career and the second win of his West career. 115 laps were completed of the scheduled 150-lap race before Mother Nature showed up, raining down her fury. The race, which was halted at first due to lightning, was then called off once the rain started pouring, with the series officials deciding to end the race early, thereby sending William Sawalich to victory lane.

Sharing his delight, he said, “I mean, for sure, not the way we want to win a race, but our Starkey Soundgear Toyota was really good all night, I kind of fell back during that first stint and the guys made a good adjustment. I’m super proud of them for doing that and sticking with me. I mean, we ran a good race and definitely had a chance to win it so I’m really proud about it.”

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