ELKO, Minn. — Racing in front of his hometown crowd, William Sawalich overcame a mid-race crash to score a thrilling victory during the Shore Lunch 250 presented by Dutch Boy Paints on Saturday night at Elko Speedway.
Unlike his flag-to-flag masterpiece one weekend ago at Indiana’s Salem Speedway, Saturday’s event at Elko Speedway presented a much larger challenge for the 17-year-old from nearby Eden Prairie.
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota started from the pole and was in total control of the event until lap 149 when contact with Michael Maples sent Sawalich around in turns 1 and 2, allowing Rev Racing’s Lavar Scott to inherit the race lead while Sawalich fell to eighth.
From there, Sawalich and his team went to work. They took advantage of the second scheduled race break on lap 175 to make repairs and adjustments, which set up Sawalich for what would turn out to be an incredible finish at the 0.375-mile oval.
“I just went really loose all of a sudden, I think from the left-rear (tire) going down,” Sawalich said. “I just lost a lot of rear grip. I was a little worried there. I trusted my team enough. I knew we were good enough.”
By lap 231, Sawalich had moved Kris Wright for second and set his sights on Scott, but a caution two laps later for a spin by Ryan Roulette allowed Sawalich to close the one-second gap between himself and the race leader.
With lightning in the distance and rain in the air, the race resumed with just seven laps left. Scott got a great restart and Sawalich first had to fend off Wright for second before he could try and challenge Scott for the lead.
With three laps left Sawalich got to the inside of Scott and was able to complete the pass one lap later, but Scott crossed over and drove underneath Sawalich to try and take the lead back going into turn 3.
The two made contact and sparks flew, but both drivers kept their feet on the gas as they stormed under the white flag with Wright right in their tire tracks.
Down the backstretch and into turn 3 there was more contact between Sawalich and Scott as Wright looked to go three-wide on the bottom out of turn 4. All three drivers got sideways coming out of the corner, but it was Sawalich who got to the finish line first by 0.011 seconds ahead of Scott. Wright spun across the finish line to finish third.
“That was one of the best races I’ve ever put together and this team has put together,” Sawalich said in victory lane. “Just really shows our dedication and our teamwork towards this race and obviously in front of the home crowd, this is awesome. This is the coolest thing ever to do this.
“I was racing Legend cars here four years ago. It is pretty emotional. I’m glad I could have my family here and all my friends here.”
Scott led a career-high 100 laps during Saturday’s event before ultimately finishing second. It was his second runner-up finish of the 2024 season. Wright finished third, followed by Isabella Robusto and Andres Perez.
E.J. Tamayo, Toni Breidinger, Sean Hingorani, Greg Van Alst and Christian Rose were sixth through 10th, respectively.