{"id":907837,"date":"2026-09-24T12:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T12:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907837\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T12:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T12:26:16","slug":"joe-gibbs-racing-driver-replaced-after-one-race-with-new-nascar-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907837\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Gibbs Racing driver replaced, after one race with new NASCAR team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">William Sawalich never competed full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series before landing his full-time ride with Joe Gibbs Racing in the O&#8217;Reilly Auto Parts Series (then Xfinity Series) a year ago, but he had competed in select Truck Series races in both 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">He continued to run a partial schedule in the Truck Series in 2025 and did so again throughout the first half of 2026. Every single one of his starts during that stretch came with Tricon Garage, with the most recent coming in late May at Nashville Superspeedway.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">But this past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/joe-gibbs-racing-nascar-driver-joining-new-team-one-race-01m239rtawdg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he made his Truck Series return with a team for which he had never previously competed<\/a>, and he earned a season-high finish of seventh.<\/p>\n<p>William Sawalich replacement confirmed at Kansas<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\"><a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/2027-ntt-indycar-series-driver-lineup-prediction-after-aj-foyt-news-01m30dxyhn7j\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sawalich took over for full-time Joe Gibbs Racing Cup driver Christopher Bell<\/a> behind the wheel of the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota. Bell ran the Truck Series regular season finale at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but as a full-time Cup driver, <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/nascar-just-blatantly-broke-own-new-rules-new-hampshire-decision-01m09jg99f6v\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he was ineligible to run the playoff opener at Bristol<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"86\">Sawalich&#8217;s previous top finishes of the year had been a pair of 10th place efforts at Darlington Raceway in March and Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. His seventh place finish with Halmar Friesen Racing is his second-best in 27 career starts, trailing only his sixth place finish at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park back in August 2023.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">This coming weekend at Kansas Speedway, however, Sawalich will not compete, as he will not return to the No. 62 Toyota for the Truck Series race and the O&#8217;Reilly Series is scheduled for its lone off weekend of the postseason.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8g\">Instead, it&#8217;s Leland Honeyman who is set to pilot the No. 62 entry, which he&#8217;s driven twice this year. He finished 23rd at Charlotte in May and 17th at Richmond Raceway in August, after <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondtheflag.com\/late-replacement-confirmed-christopher-bell-richmond-01m01nh3pcxd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">being called upon to replace Bell<\/a> because Bell had a previously scheduled commitment to attend after the race was postponed.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8l\">Until this year, Honeyman, who also runs a partial schedule for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports in the O&#8217;Reilly Series, hadn&#8217;t run a Truck Series race since making his series debut in 2022.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8q\">As of now, Sawalich has no plans to return to the Truck Series this year with Tricon Garage or with Halmar Friesen Racing.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"90\">Fox Sports 1&#8217;s live coverage of the RaceToStopSuicide.com 200 is set to begin at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 26. Start a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fubo.tv\/welcome?irad=343747&amp;irmp=1412332&amp;subId1=FS-2024streaming\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free trial of FuboTV now<\/a> and don&#8217;t miss any of the action from the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs at Kansas Speedway!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow beyondtheflag.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=beyondtheflag.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-Cl4Uw_qF.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"96\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Sawalich never competed full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series before landing his full-time ride with Joe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-907837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}