Todd Gilliland Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson claimed his first pole position of the 2024 season Saturday afternoon to lead an all Hendrick Motorsports front row for Sunday’s Toyota Owner’s 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (7 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson’s time of 22.438-seconds (120.332 mph) just bettered his teammate Chase Elliott’s mark of 22.440-seconds (120.321) around the three-quarter mile Richmond oval – good enough to earn the 2021 series champion and defending Richmond race winner the 17th pole position of his career. “DefinitelyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Michael McDowell and Joey Logano performed their own version of “Trading Places” during NASCAR Cup Series time trials on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. After finishing second to Logano in qualifying for the season-opening DAYTONA 500, McDowell will start his 467th Cup race from a position he has never occupied before—first on the grid—with Logano beside him in second. Having won the first Busch Light Pole Award of his career, McDowell will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Ambetter HealthRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Ryan Blaney did what Denny Hamlin couldn’t do in Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. As a result, Blaney will race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship next Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, and Hamlin exits the Playoffs after a hard-luck Round of 8. During a 168-lap green-flag run to the finish, Blaney tracked down Aric Almirola and passed him for the lead on Lap 478 of 500. Twenty-two laps later, Blaney took the checkered flag 0.899 seconds ahead of Almirola toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – It’s that time of the year again, when NASCAR invades open wheel territory for a weekend at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For the third year in a row, the Cup Series will be joining their counterparts from the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series in running on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course in what will be an action-filled tripleheader weekend, culminating in Sunday’s Verizon 200. In the two races on the road course, carnage has ensued, but NASCAR is hoping toRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  BRISTOL, Tenn. – Before Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell lamented that a “dirt guy” hadn’t won the NASCAR Cup Series’ only race on the red clay in Thunder Valley.  Bell fixed the problem—in a race that also saw hard feelings between pole winner Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece boil over.  Holding off charging Tyler Reddick in the final stage of the 250-lap race, Bell held a slim lead over Reddick when NASCAR called the 14th caution with 200Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service AUSTIN, Texas – Tyler Reddick prevailed in three overtime re-starts to claim his first trophy of the year – and first with his new team, 23XI Racing, with a 1.411-second victory over two-time series champion Kyle Busch in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix – the NASCAR Cup Series’ first road course race of the season. It was a field of international champions and NASCAR’s very best at the famed Circuit of The Americas course but for most of the race the outcome looked toRead More

By Matt Weaver, Special Contributor All that’s left for Todd Gilliland to do is just win the dang Daytona 500 and everything else will take care of itself. Okay, it’s not quite that dire nor that simple, but winning the biggest race of the year would solve several emerging issues for the second-generation Cup Series racer at Front Row Motorsports. Gilliland found out over the winter that his full-time schedule would be scaled down to 30 races to make room for Truck Series champion Zane Smith and his five-race campaign. SmithRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – Always the unquestionable fan favorite at NASCAR’s famed Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Georgia-native Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass to claim the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 victory Sunday afternoon – having to better one of his best friends, Ryan Blaney, to earn the first automatic bid into the next round of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. With a lap to go, Elliott pulled his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the bottom lane to the top lane and got aRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – When all of the dust settled at the end of Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, a trio of NASCAR Cup Series rookies drove like veterans to bring home a top-five finish. For all three of the rookies — Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton, and Todd Gilliland — it came down to being in the right place at the right time on the final restart as the race on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was pushed into overtime. The feat by Cindric, Burton,Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SPEEDWAY, Ind. – The NASCAR Cup Series has a new road course conqueror. Tyler Reddick survived a wild overtime battle against Ross Chastain—who, as it turned out, was under penalty for finagling the first corner—to win Sunday’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard.  Reddick’s NASCAR Cup Series victory at the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course was his second this month, the second of his career and his second at a road course. There was one fundamental difference between Reddick’s win at the BrickyardRead More