Josh Williams (racing driver)
Josh Williams | |||||||
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![]() Williams at Dover International Speedway in 2019 | |||||||
Born | Joshua L. Williams August 3, 1993 Port Charlotte, Florida | ||||||
NASCAR Xfinity Series career | |||||||
94 races run over 5 years | |||||||
Car no., team | No. 92 (DGM Racing) | ||||||
2020 position | 15th | ||||||
Best finish | 15th (2020) | ||||||
First race | 2016 Menards 250 (Michigan) | ||||||
Last race | 2024 Wawa 250 (Daytona) | ||||||
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NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career | |||||||
1 race run over 1 year | |||||||
2014 position | 84th | ||||||
Best finish | 84th (2014) | ||||||
First race | 2014 Kroger 250 (Martinsville) | ||||||
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Statistics current as of November 7, 2020. |
Joshua L. Williams[1] (born August 3, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 92 Chevrolet Camaro for DGM Racing. He previously raced in the ARCA Racing Series, accumulating over 100 starts in that series.[2]
Racing career
Early years
Williams started his racing career in go-kart racing[3] and later raced Fastrucks and Legends cars to advance his early career, eventually earning a berth in the 2009 edition of "Humpy's Heroes", a summer driver development program run by Humpy Wheeler for young drivers.[4]
ARCA Racing Series
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/ARCA_68_Josh_Williams_Road_America_2013.jpg/220px-ARCA_68_Josh_Williams_Road_America_2013.jpg)
Williams drove five races in the 2010 ARCA Racing Series in his family car, numbered 02. He recorded the best finish of 15th at Iowa Speedway.[5] Williams caught the attention of those in the racing community with those performances, as he ran three races for Andy Belmont the following year and another three for his family team, which later developed an alliance with Lira Motorsports. Williams recorded two top-tens in Belmont's car and one more in his own car.[6] For 2012, Williams took his Josh Williams Motorsports team full-time, running all but one race while having limited funding. He failed to finish three races and had four top tens with a best finish of seventh.[7]
The 2013 season was a struggle, to begin with for Williams, who remained sponsorless through the first five races of the season despite having two top ten finishes. He then signed a four race deal with Roulo Brothers Racing, making sporadic appearances in their Ford racecars. Running in between races for Roulo with his family team, Williams was signed by Frank Kimmel to drive one of his cars at Road America, starting and parking. Williams drove the next race for GMS Racing, again start and parking at Michigan International Speedway. Williams carried the sponsorship from Allegiant Air for the rest of the year, grabbing his first top-five finish (a second at Chicagoland Speedway). He finished fifth in points while utilizing four teams to get there.[8]
Again hampered by limited funding, Williams scaled back to just over half the schedule in 2014, always running near or in the top ten. He scored another runner-up finish in the season's penultimate race.[9] He raced the full season with the number six in 2015, except for one race with Cunningham Motorsports. He only finished outside of the top ten in five races and finished third in the drivers standings,[10] behind Grant Enfinger and Austin Wayne Self, who passed Williams for second during the final race. 2016 brought new success for Williams, as he won his first two races, at Madison International Speedway[11] and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.[12] The Madison win came after he blew an engine in the previous contests and considered withdrawing from Madison; his crew pulled an all-nighter during the week to get the engine prepared.[3] He finished fifth in points after an inconsistent season with 11 top tens.[13]
Williams had said that he would have liked to run more ARCA Racing Series races in 2017.[14] His team ran two races in the beginning of the season in a partnership with Lira Motorsports,[15] and Williams himself went behind the wheel for the annual Salem Speedway throwback weekend, running fourth.[16]
Williams returned once again in 2018 season behind the wheel of No. 6 Chevrolet at Talladega in a partnership between his own team and Our Motorsports. They finished 5th.
National series
Williams and family made one Camping World Truck Series start in a partnership with T3R2 Racing, falling out at Martinsville Speedway in 2014.[17] He made two Xfinity Series starts as a start and park driver in 2016, one for Jimmy Means Racing and one for King Autosport.[18] He was announced as the driver of King's No. 90 entry for the spring Bristol Motor Speedway Xfinity race on April 21, 2017.[19] Longtime friend Mario Gosselin helped Williams get the ride.[20] Along with the Bristol race, Williams wanted to run about six Truck races for his family team in 2017.[21] The Truck races never came, but Williams garnered six other starts split between King's 90 and 92 cars, mostly starting and parking in the 92 and running full races in the 90. At Daytona in summer, Williams was running just outside the top ten before he was clipped by Daniel Suárez, finishing last.[22] Williams broke the top thirty in all of his full races.[23]
For 2018, Williams took over the majority of the races in the No. 90 and served as crew chief for drivers of the 90 like Donald Theetge and Andy Lally most weekends when he was not in the seat.[24]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/36JoshWilliams2019CTECH180.jpg/220px-36JoshWilliams2019CTECH180.jpg)
On January 29, 2019, it was announced that Williams would move over to DGM's No. 36 car for the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.[25] After gambling on pit strategy, Williams finished a then-career-best sixteenth in the Boyd Gaming 300 in early March.[26] He later improved on that career-best with his first career top-ten, an eighth at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring. The finish helped Williams and DGM bounce back from a sponsor who failed to pay the team in the beginning portions of the year.[27]
Williams returned to DGM in 2020, piloting the team's No. 92 entry. He reeled off two top-ten finishes in the month of October, including a career-best sixth-place finish at Kansas Speedway that came only a day after the death of one of Williams' employees.[3] On October 31, Williams and the team confirmed another full-season effort in 2021.[28]
Josh Williams Motorsports
Aside from his NASCAR racing, Williams operates a driver development program, Josh Williams Motorsports, that deals in the Legends car racing, bandolero racing, and late model racing ranks.[3]
Personal life
Williams was born in Florida but moved to the Charlotte area at age 15, taking online classes to get through high school while racing.[3] As a teen, Williams was injured in a head-on four-wheeler collision and spent five days in the ICU.[4] Williams visits children's hospitals to give back to the community in his free time.[29] Williams, with his wife, owns a company that prepares foreclosed homes for auction, which he works at during the week while racing.[24]
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Xfinity Series
Camping World Truck Series
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | NCWTC | Pts | Ref | ||||||||||||||||
2014 | Josh Williams Motorsports | 66 | Ford | DAY | MAR 34 |
KAN | CLT | DOV | TEX | GTW | KEN | IOW | ELD | POC | MCH | BRI | MSP | CHI | NHA | LVS | TAL | MAR | TEX | PHO | HOM | 84th | 10 | [35] |
ARCA Racing Series
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points
References
- ^ "Team Event Rosters – Texas Motor Speedway – Saturday, October 24, 2020" (PDF). NASCAR. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams Career Statistics - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ a b c d e Long, Dustin (October 23, 2020). "Friday 5: How a career-best finish was heartbreaking for Josh Williams". NBC Sports. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
- ^ a b Anderson, Chris (June 2, 2009). "Growing up fast". Sarasota Herald Tribune. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2010 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2011 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2012 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2013 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2014 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2015 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Josh Williams Wins ARCA Race At Madison". Beyond the Flag. 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Josh Williams wins ARCA race in Nashville". Auto Racing. 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2016 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ Winningham, Brett. "ARCA: Josh Williams Talks Season, Biggest Influence, and Expectations for 2017". Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "2017 #6 Josh Williams Motorsports - ARCA Racing Paint Schemes". www.thepitlane.org. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2017 ARCA Racing Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Josh Williams grateful for Bristol XFINITY Series debut with King Autosport". Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ Wilson, Steven B. "Josh Williams grateful for Bristol XFINITY Series debut with King Autosport". Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Josh Williams Steers Blue Collar Team to ARCA Championship Mix, NASCAR Future". Motorsports Tribune. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "XFINITY: Crash puts brakes on strong run for Josh Williams and Gosselin team at Daytona". brock.lastcar.info. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
- ^ "Driver Josh Williams 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
- ^ a b Gluck, Jeff. "How I Got Here with Josh Williams". player.fm. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
- ^ Seelman, Jacob. "Josh Williams Returning To DGM Racing In Xfinity". Speed Sport. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
- ^ Seelman, Jacob. "Josh Williams Has Career Day Again in Las Vegas". Speed Sport. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
- ^ Seelman, Jacob. "Josh Williams Soaks In Career-Best Xfinity Result". Speed Sport. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
- ^ Segal, Davey. "Josh Williams Returning to DGM Racing in 2021". Frontstretch. Retrieved October 31, 2020.
- ^ "This Homecoming Like None Other For Josh Williams And Team". shorttracks.us. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2010 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2011 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2012 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2013 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2014 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2015 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2016 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2017 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Josh Williams – 2018 ARCA Racing Series Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
External links
- Josh Williams driver statistics at Racing-Reference