XFINITY: Josh Williams collected in early pileup during Atlanta marathon
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Steven Taranto, @STaranto92
Josh Williams picked up the 4th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Friday’s Focused Health 250 at the EchoPark Speedway when his #11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after 3 of 163 laps.
The finish, which came in Williams’ 236th series start, was his first of the season and first in a XFINITY Series race since March 23, 2024 at the Circuit of the Americas, 45 races ago (LINK). In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 13th for the #11, the 411th from a crash, and the 665th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 65th for the #11, the 1,423rd from a crash, and the 1,997th for Chevrolet.
Williams continues to pursue his first NASCAR victory in this, his tenth season in the XFINTY Series and second driving for Kaulig Racing. After years of outperforming while driving for underfunded teams, Williams has since endured more than his share of bad luck amid streaks of mid-pack performances. Last year marked the first time he had started all the races in a season since 2020, yet he finished three positions worse in points with just four top-ten finishes. Two Cup starts early in the season didn’t go much better. This season, it’s been teammate Christian Eckes who has consistently struggled. But through the same 16 races, Williams has earned just two top-ten finishes with a best of 6th in Charlotte.
With no practice scheduled at the rebranded EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), Williams first hit the track in qualifying, where he earned the 30th spot on the grid with a lap of 32.652 seconds (169.791mph).
Since exactly 38 drivers were entered for as many starting spots, the last spot on the grid went to Mason Maggio in the #53 Control-Alt-Protect Ford for Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen. Maggio’s team needed to change engines for the race, incurring them a redundant tail-end penalty. Also sent to the rear for unapproved adjustments were the #91 Main Street Auto Chevrolet of C.J. McLaughlin, who in his 49th series start secured a career-best 8th-place starting spot that blew away his previous mark of 21st, plus 24th-place Carson Kvapil in the #1 Registix Chevrolet and 27th-place Jeb Burton in the #27 AJ Transport Chevrolet.
When the green flag dropped, Maggio was instructed by NASCAR to trail the outside line while Jeb Burton trailed the inside lane. Maggio was last across the stripe, 4.301 seconds back of the lead to the now 37th-place Burton, 3.764 behind. As the field came off Turn 2, Maggio was warned that Mason Massey’s #45 Special Olympics of Georgia Chevrolet was dragging sparks from the left-rear. By the end of Lap 1, Maggio was directly behind the now 37th-place Massey, 3.849 seconds back of the lead. By Lap 3, Maggio cleared Massey by a half-second, leaving Massey 4.990 behind. Spotter and team owner Tommy Joe Martins didn’t seem too concerned about the sparks off Massey’s car, which was 5.595 back of the lead on Lap 4, then quickly alerted him to a wreck in Turn 4.
Entering that corner, a battle around the 15th spot boiled over when Christian Eckes’ #16 Campers Inn RV Mobile Medic Chevrolet got into the left-rear of Blaine Perkins’ #31 Werner Chevrolet. Perkins spun to his left, then slid his rear bumper across the outside wall, blocking the fast-approaching William Sawalich, who pulled his #18 Soundgear Toyota to the outside, opening the inside for Parker Retzlaff’s #4 QuixRX Chevrolet. Both were immediately trapped. Retzlaff rear-ended Eckes a split-second before Sawalich rammed Perkins. Josh Williams was running the high lane behind Sawalich when he also piled in, destroying the nose of his own car, lifting Sawalich’s rear tires off the track, and sending Perkins careening down the track along with Eckes. Retzlaff fought for control as he pulled low while both Sawalich and Williams eased off the fence, both with significant damage.
As the tail end of the field approached the crash scene, Martins told last-place Massey to come to a stop. He avoided involvement along with the rest of the field, which picked their way through. It was Lap 5, and Massey dropped Williams to last as he, Retzlaff, Sawalich, and Perkins made it to pit road for repairs. Perkins dropped to 35th but continued along one lap down after repairs to his loosened TV panel. Sawalich appeared to return as well as his damage didn’t appear as bad as that suffered by Retzlaff and Williams, but he soon joined the other two in the garage, done for the day. On Lap 15, Retzlaff and Williams were released from the infield care center followed by Sawalich. Perkins cleared minimum speed on the Lap 18 restart. And on Lap 19, Williams was declared out along with Retzlaff and Sawalich.
Completing the Bottom Five were Patrick Staropoli in the #24 SYFOVRE Toyota and Katherine Legge’s #32 Desnuda Tequila Chevrolet, which were among the dozen or so cars collected in a massive pileup on the Lap 41 restart that followed an hour-plus red flag for lightning in the area. Each were running midpack when they collided with the inside wall heading into Turn 3.
Honeyman shows impressive car control; Kyle Sieg continues Top Ten streak
One week after running a car with no primary sponsorship in Pocono, Leland Honeyman, Jr. had an impressive night in the Cope Family Racing team’s #70 DPR Construction Chevrolet. Honeyman finished 8th in Stage 1 and battled in and around the Top 10 for much of the final stage, climbing into the Top 5 in the final laps. He then authored the night’s most impressive save when he and Dean Thompson came together in the high lane off Turn 4. Both managed to save their cars from nearly spinning. Honeyman finished 12th behind Dean Thompson’s #26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota, which ran 5th in Stage 1.
Also earning a strong run was Kyle Sieg, who ran a scheme similar to Ricky Rudd’s 2002 Havoline Ford on his #28 Big House Construction Ford. Sieg climbed to a 9th-place finish after taking 8th in Stage 2. Sieg has now scored exactly one top-ten finish in each of the last four consecutive seasons and still has just less than one-half the remaining schedule to set a new personal record for the season.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*While this marked Williams’ first last-place finish in a XFINITY Series race at Atlanta, he’s also finished last in a Cup Series race at the track – and in its current configuration – when his #16 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet was collected in the Lap 3 crash on February 25, 2024.
*The #11 most recently finished last in a XFINITY Series race at Atlanta on March 4, 2017, when Blake Koch’s turn in the #11 Leaf Filter Gutter Protection Chevrolet ended in a crash after 2 laps. That finish occurred in just the second season for Kaulig Racing, which began running XFINITY races with Koch in 2016.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #11-Josh Williams / 3 laps / crash
37) #4-Parker Retzlaff / 3 laps / crash
36) #18-William Sawalich / 4 laps / crash
35) #24-Patrick Staropoli / 40 laps / crash
34) #32-Katherine Legge / 40 laps / crash
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing (5)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing (4)
3rd) Sam Hunt Racing (2)
4th) Alpha Prime Racing, Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen, JR Motorsports, Our Motorsports, SS-Green Light Racing, Young’s Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (11)
2nd) Toyota (6)
2025 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
