Josh Williams (racing driver)

Josh Williams
Williams at Dover International Speedway in 2019
Born	Joshua L. Williams (1993-08-03) August 3, 1993 (age 28) Port Charlotte, Florida
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
126 races run over 6 years
Car no., team	No. 78 (B.J. McLeod Motorsports)
2021 position	18th
Best finish	15th (2020)
First race	2016 Menards 250 (Michigan)
Last race	2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (Phoenix)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 8 0
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
1 race run over 1 year
2014 position	84th
Best finish	84th (2014)
First race	2014 Kroger 250 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
Statistics current as of December 26, 2021.

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. 78 Chevrolet Camaro for B.J. McLeod Motorsports. 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[]

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 , 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]

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] Following the 2021 season, DGM parted ways with Williams, with the team opting to find an experienced and funded driver to fill the No. 92 in 2022.^[29]

In December 2021, it was announced that Williams would drive the No. 78 in 2022 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports.^[30]

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.^[31] 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[]

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
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	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2016	Jimmy Means Racing	79	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	DOV	CLT	POC	MCH 38	IOW	DAY	KEN																		80th	4	[32]
	King Autosport	92	Chevy																	NHA DNQ	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH	CHI	KEN 37	DOV	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO	HOM
2017		90		DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI 22	RCH	TAL	CLT	DOV	POC 28															KEN 26	DOV	CLT	KAN			HOM 28	46th	53	[33]
		92														MCH 34	IOW	DAY 40	KEN	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH	CHI					TEX 34	PHO
2018	DGM Racing	90		DAY 22	ATL 24	LVS 21	PHO 29	CAL 25	TEX 30	BRI 22	RCH	TAL 26	DOV	CLT 38	POC 21	MCH 32	IOW 34	CHI 31	DAY 24	KEN 35	NHA	IOW 24	GLN	MOH	BRI 28	ROA	DAR	IND 24	LVS 20	RCH	CLT	DOV	KAN 24	TEX	PHO		32nd	208	[34]
		92																																		HOM DNQ
2019		36		DAY 22	ATL 21	LVS 16	PHO 29	CAL 33	TEX 14	BRI 19		TAL 8	DOV 22	CLT 27	POC 15	MCH 23	IOW 17	CHI 26	DAY 28	KEN 18	NHA 19	IOW 15	GLN 19	MOH 22	BRI 30	ROA 31	DAR 24	IND 17	LVS 18	RCH 23	CLT 20	DOV 15	KAN 21	TEX 14	PHO 15	HOM 19	17th	527	[35]
		92									RCH DNQ
2020				DAY 26	LVS 13	CAL 10	PHO 16	DAR 16	CLT 14	BRI 9	ATL 28	HOM 20	HOM 12	TAL 33	POC 34	IND 22	KEN 26	KEN 15	TEX 22	KAN 20	ROA 13	DAY 24	DOV 24	DOV 22	DAY 9	DAR 15	RCH 22	RCH 25	BRI 19	LVS 18	TAL 7	CLT 34	KAN 6	TEX 9	MAR 19	PHO 13	15th	609	[36]
2021				DAY 21	DAY 17	HOM 26	LVS 16	PHO 21	ATL 16	MAR 16	TAL 28	DAR 39	DOV 38	COA DNQ	CLT 21	MOH 10	TEX 17	NSH 21	POC 40	ROA 17	ATL 18	NHA 22	GLN 14	IND 15	MCH 18	DAY 17	DAR 15	RCH 23	BRI 20	LVS 24	TAL 14	CLT 11	TEX 19	KAN 26	MAR 11	PHO 32	18th	531	[37]

Camping World Truck Series[]

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
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	[38]

ARCA Racing Series[]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Racing Series results
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	ARSC	Pts	Ref
2010	Josh Williams Motorsports	02	Ford	DAY	20	SLM		TAL	TOL 26	POC	MCH	IOW 15			BLN	25	ISF	CHI	DSF		SLM	KAN	CAR 24		42nd	600	[39]
2011	Andy Belmont Racing	14	Chevy	DAY	TAL	SLM 6	TOL 12	7		POC		WIN	BLN												27th	990	[40]
	Josh Williams Motorsports	02	Ford											IOW 32	8		ISF		DSF	SLM	KAN	14
2012				DAY 33	MOB 20		TAL 12	TOL 13	ELK	POC 10			22	IOW 32	CHI 20	IRP 13	21	BLN 17		7		DSF C	KAN 13		9th	3285	[41]
			Chevy			SLM 9					MCH 29	10							ISF 18		SLM 22
2013			Ford	DAY 15	MOB 26		TAL 6	TOL 8		POC 10	MCH 16			CHI 2	12	13									5th	4825	[42]
			Chevy			SLM 19													8		IOW 12	SLM 6	KEN 15	KAN 10
		17	Ford						ELK 6
		68	Ford									23
	GMS Racing	23	Chevy										WIN 17
		99	Ford														BLN 9	ISF 10		DSF 13
2014	Josh Williams Motorsports	6	Chevy	DAY	MOB	SLM 6		TOL 11	NJE 11	6	MCH 10			CHI 11			BLN	ISF	MAD	DSF		KEN 13	KAN 2		13th	2280	[43]
			Ford				TAL 11					ELK 6	14
2015				DAY 9			SLM 19	TAL 18																	3rd	4650	[44]
			Chevy		MOB 3	7			TOL 3	NJE 3	POC 7	6		WIN 7	IOW 22	IRP 6	5	BLN 6	ISF 4	DSF 4	8	KEN 24	KAN 26
	Cunningham Motorsports	22	Dodge										CHI 7
2016	Josh Williams Motorsports	6	Ford	DAY 19			TAL 2																		4th	4175	[45]
			Chevy		NSH 1	SLM 13		TOL 6	NJE 6	POC 11	20	MAD 1	WIN 6	IOW 10	IRP 4	26	BLN 10	ISF 16	DSF	SLM 4	CHI 26	KEN 6	KAN 13
2017		31		DAY	NSH	SLM	TAL	TOL	ELK	POC		MAD	IOW	IRP		WIN	ISF		DSF	SLM 4	CHI	KEN	KAN		77th	210	[46]
2018	Our Motorsports	6	Chevy	DAY	NSH	SLM	TAL 5	TOL		POC	MCH	MAD		CHI	IOW			ISF	BLN	DSF		IRP	KAN		76th	205	[47]

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

References[]

External links[]

• Josh Williams driver statistics at Racing-Reference