O’Reilly: Sawalich Snaps JRM Win Streak, Scores First Win at the Rock

What’s Happening?

The checkered flag is out for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Rockingham Speedway. The story of the day was Corey Day, who had an absolute breakout of a day. The young phenom for HMS dominated the opening stints in today’s race, leading a whopping 118 out of 250 laps. With a 2nd place finish last week at Martinsville, the question wasn’t if he’d win but when and where.

Unfortunately, the place and time was not this weekend at Rockingham Speedway at pit road woes put an abrupt end to his potential first career victory. But his loss was a gain for the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers as Brent Crews assumed the race lead. The 18-year old driver of the No. 19 Toyota 30 laps before faltering due to a flat tire. This blew the door wide open for his teammates, William Sawalich and Brandon Jones who took over the top 2 spots late in the going. Sawalich went on to score his first career victory in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, putting an end to JR Motorsports 2026 win streak.

19-year-old @WilliamSawalich claims victory No 1 and becomes the youngest driver ever to win at Rockingham! pic.twitter.com/LLAo84IE90

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) April 4, 2026

Post-Race Notes:

• Stage 1 started with polesitter Corey Day rocketing out front to the race lead. He ended up leading 55 of the opening stage’s 60 laps, managing to score his first career stage victory. There were a number of drivers who took advantage of a late-stage caution and cycle of pit stops to score points at the end of the stage. Among them were Taylor Gray and Sammy Smith.
• Stage 2 once again belonged to phenom rookie Corey Day, who is off to a strong start to the 2026 season in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. Of the opening 120 laps of the race, Day led a race-high 115 in the first two stages. It was surely a breakout performance from him. Looking strong on the longer runs was JRM driver Justin Allgaier, who started to comb his way through the top 5 by the end of the second stage. This marked the first time in Day’s career that he swept the stages of a race.
• The following drivers all earned stage points today: Corey Day (20), William Sawalich (15), Justin Allgaier (15), Brandon Jones (14), Taylor Gray (9), Brent Crews (9), Rajah Caruth (8), Jesse Love (5), Parker Retzlaff (5), Sammy Smith (4), Sheldon Creed (3), Jeremy Clements (2), and Carson Kvapil (1).
• After Corey Day had some woes on pit road that put in back in traffic, control of the race was handed to the JGR trio of Brent Crews, William Sawalich, and Brandon Jones. With Crews having tire issues of his own that took him out of contention, Sawalich and Jones were left to settle it amongst themselves. In the end, it was the young Sawalich who scored his first career victory at the Rock.
• William Sawalich clocked the Xfinity Fastest Lap. Because of this, he receives 1 additional bonus point to add to his total on the day.

Caution Lap Tracker

• Lap 49: Blake Lothian spins from 34th
• Lap 60: End of Stage 1
• Lap 94: Jeremy Clements spins
• Lap 120: End of Stage 2
• Lap 165: Anthony Alfredo Spins
• Lap 173: Jeremy Clements gets tagged by Ryan Sieg and hits the wall
• Lap 206: Cleetus McFarland spins

Official Race Results

WILLIAM SAWALICH GETS HIS FIRST CAREER VICTORY!!!!! pic.twitter.com/eQtUZFRGyJ

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) April 4, 2026

Points Standings (8 of 24)

Corey Day is ROLLING!

He completes a stage sweep at Rockingham 🧹🧹 pic.twitter.com/QjyPYSXXMZ

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) April 4, 2026

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