Josh Williams suspended for COTA, Alex Labbe to fill in

Josh Williams parking his damaged car and walking away on the frontstretch during Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway may have turned him into a folk hero, but NASCAR is unsurprisingly not too thrilled with his action. On Tuesday, DGM Racing announced NASCAR had suspended Williams for Saturday’s Circuit of the Americas event. Alex Labbé will fill in and drive the #92 Chevrolet Camaro.

Williams was collected in a wreck on lap 29 that resulted in damage to his hood which his team tried to piece together using tape. After riding around during the caution laps, NASCAR stopped scoring him due to debris coming off his vehicle. In response, he parked the #92 along the start/finish line and walked away, greeting the fans as he left. NASCAR immediately threw the rulebook at Williams as the action violated Section 8.8.9.I: “If a damaged vehicle elects not to enter pit road on the first opportunity or if a damaged vehicle exits pit road before sufficient repairs had been made and thereafter causes or extends a caution.”

Cup Series drivers Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher offered to cover any fine for him, though only the one-race suspension has been confirmed.

“Thank you to all of the fans for sticking by my side and showing love,” reads a statement from Williams after the ruling. “I stand behind what I did and I don’t regret any decision I made. I stand behind NASCAR for these decisions and will continue and always continue to support them. I am not going anywhere any time soon! I hope the loyal fans of NASCAR continue to fill the infields and grandstands. We will be back stronger than ever and ready to get the 92 DGM Racing team Chevy back up front!”

Labbé, a regular for DGM since 2016, missed the season opener in their #36 before joining RSS Racing for the next two races at Fontana and Las Vegas, respectively finishing twenty-eighth and eighteenth. Although he was a full-timer at DGM in 2018 and 2021 and consistently ran in the top twenty in points, unstable funding has prevented him from continuing his efforts.

The 2017 Pinty’s Series champion, Labbé is regarded as a solid road racer. While he placed twentieth and thirty-sixth in his two Xfinity starts at COTA, he qualified in the top five in both and has five top-ten finishes at road courses.