Josh Williams and DGM Racing team owner Mario Gosselin are like two peas in a pod. The duo enjoy getting their hands dirty, working relentlessly to make their cars more competitive.
“That is cool because I get to work on stuff a little bit, and that’s fun. I wasn’t allowed to do that at my previous job. I got in trouble,” Williams quipped.
For the better part of the past decade, Williams overachieved with DGM Racing. He departed the team ahead of the 2022 season for BJ McLeod Motorsports, but was back inside the DGM family by the end of summer. Much of the past two seasons, he competed under the Kaulig Racing banner until both parties mutually parted ways last July after 54 races together.
Even though Williams’ first opportunity with a big organization went awry, he continued having the drive to compete in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He has always been a grinder. It’s what he does.
“You’ve been in racing your whole life, know hundreds of people and they all have respect for you and you have one [team] that absolutely talks nothing but bad about you,” Williams said. “You just have to prove all of those people wrong.”
Despite not finishing a second full season with Kaulig, Williams learned valuable lessons of how structured larger organizations are. It’s unlike DGM Racing, which has 13 employees, where everyone has to be well rounded, knowing the ins and outs of everything it takes to succeed.
DGM is a natural fit to return for Williams. It’s a place he considers home, as he approaches the 10-year anniversary of his series debut with the Florida-based organization. Loyalty is important for both sides, and they’ve always had each other to lean on.
“It’s easier coming back to DGM and being around people that appreciate me and my sponsors and they treat everybody right,” Williams added. “You trust them. You know that they are going to do everything they can do with what they are given. They are not going to try snake something from you or do something from somebody else. It was a good place to come back and make our partners feel good again and show them that there are good people in this sport.”
Gosselin considered getting Williams to return to DGM as a top priority for the 2026 season. The organization had an open seat, as Ryan Ellis moved to Young’s Motorsports after a one-year stop with DGM.
“It’s more than just a driver-owner relationship,” Gosselin stated. “Since the very beginning of his career, we’ve worked together. I helped him with his ARCA car and we started this O’Reilly program with him. We would try to find some money, do some start-and-parks, whatever we could to go race. He is a racer.”
DGM has been a hotbed for drivers with limited funding to showcase their potential. Both Alex Labbe and Kyle Weatherman had standout performances competing for the team, with Labbe tying Ross Chastain’s fourth-place finish as the best in team history. At the same time, Gosselin knows drivers come and go, making his relationship with Williams that much more coveted.
“I think he thought he got a better opportunity and I don’t want to hold anybody back,” Gosselin added. “We’re not Hendrick Motorsports or JR Motorsports, and we’ve conscious of that. If somebody gets an opportunity, make the best of it – it’s fine. If it doesn’t work out, we’re here plugging away and always trying to make our program better as well.”
The team has purchased newer chassis to compete with – old Cup cars from the 2020 and 2021 seasons – as Williams debuted the newest chassis he’s ever raced last month. The team is continuously finding ways to better its program, which has heightened expectations internally.
That made Circuit of The Americas and Phoenix Raceway, both events where Williams failed to qualify, that much tougher. The No. 92 team was in a hole, but bounced out of it the following week with a season-best 16th-place effort at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He also cracked the top 20 at Rockingham Speedway.
The No. 92 car has jumped to 37th in the owner standings – just 22 points below 29th – after being as low as 41st following the two DNQs.
“It doesn’t really change the way we approach it a whole lot,” Gosselin said of the early-season misfortune. “We go every weekend to give it 100% and fight for the best finish possible until the checkered flag. “The points will work themselves out. We just have to keep our heads up, get finished and make sure we’re there at the end.”
The goal for Williams each week is to deliver top 15s for DGM, knowing the uptick in performance spread across the field is compared to seasons prior in the No. 92 car. The series’ next race is at Kansas Speedway, home to Williams’ best finish with DGM, and is tied for his best career finish – sixth – in 256 starts.