DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — On February 27, 2010, Josh Williams made his ARCA Menards Series debut at Palm Beach International Raceway at just 16 years old. Running with a family-owned team, he finished in 20th place, eight laps down on the 2.034-mile road course that was just under 150 miles away from his hometown of Port Charlotte, Fla.
Flash forward 14 years, 102 ARCA starts, two ARCA wins and 186 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts later, and Williams, now 30, has been signed to drive the full 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with Kaulig Racing. It’s a tremendous opportunity and new chapter in his NASCAR journey.
His NASCAR journey can’t be told, however, without the story of what happened at Atlanta Motor Speedway last March.
Last year, Williams was driving DGM Racing’s No. 92 Xfinity car full-time. In the season’s fifth race at Atlanta, Williams was involved in an early incident. The team made repairs, but NASCAR ordered the team to park the car after debris from the No. 92 fell onto the track and brought out another caution.
Williams did end up parking the car: on the start/finish line.
The stunt netted a one-race suspension, but it endeared himself to thousands of fans and plenty of members in the garage area.
“Well, I guess my thought process wasn’t what everyone thought it was, right?” Williams said. “It wasn’t planned, but it worked out good for me. I got to get a new fanbase and kind of tell my story about who I am as a racecar driver and who I am as a person too. That’s helped a lot, got a lot of support from fans. They stopped by all the time, and they appreciated what I did for them as a fan and for the way the sport has trended in the last few years.
“NASCAR wasn’t too happy about it, but a lot of people in the garage, they were on my side.”
Now it’s February 2024, and a new year in Kaulig’s No. 11 car awaits. The team needs no introduction on the Xfinity stage, as it’s won 23 Xfinity races in the past five seasons to go along with two Cup wins.
“This [deal] is huge for me,” Williams said. “This is what everybody looks forward to, and now that I’ve got the opportunity, I just have to make the best of it. Learn their equipment, learn how their cars work, how they operate, and I’ve got a pretty good understanding of how they operate and do things around here. Now I just got to get used to the racecars and…
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