David Gilliland

David Gilliland

Gilliland at the 2015 Toyota/Save Mart 350
Born (1976-04-01) April 1, 1976
Riverside, California
Awards 2004 NASCAR West Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
332 races run over 11 years
Car no., team No. 35 (Front Row Motorsports)
2016 position 44th
Best finish 26th (2013)
First race 2006 Dodge/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma)
Last race 2016 Coke Zero 400 (Daytona)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 8 3
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
56 races run over 6 years
Best finish 39th (2007)
First race 2005 Bashas' Supermarkets 200 (Phoenix)
Last race 2010 Ford 300 (Homestead)
First win 2006 Meijer 300 (Kentucky)
Wins Top tens Poles
1 3 0
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
10 races run over 3 years
2015 position 92nd
Best finish 65th (2009)
First race 2005 Las Vegas 350 (Las Vegas)
Last race 2015 Ford EcoBoost 200 (Homestead)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 3 0
Statistics current as of July 2, 2016.

David Gilliland (born April 1, 1976) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 35 Ford Fusion for Front Row Motorsports. Born in Riverside, California, he is the son of former Cup and Winston West driver Butch Gilliland, and the father of K&N Pro Series West driver Todd Gilliland.

Racing career

NASCAR

Regional series

In 1996, he began working on his father's Winston West Series (now K&N Pro Series West) team. By 1999, Gilliland won the track championship at Perris Auto Speedway (a dirt track). Then, the following year he began a limited season in the AutoZone West Series. In 2003, Gilliland won five races in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, in the No. 11 Centrifugal Technologies Chevrolet. He finished the season with five top-fives and eight top-tens and a sixth-place finish in points.

In 2004, Gilliland announced plans to run the full schedule in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, in the No. 88 Chevrolet for MRG Motorsports and all non-conflicting NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series (now AutoZone West), races. He got his first AutoZone West win at Mesa Marin Raceway. He was then named NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series Rookie of the Year. He also had two victories in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series.

National series

Gilliland made his first attempt at a major NASCAR race in 2003, at the Las Vegas 350 in the Craftsman Truck Series, but failed to qualify. He announced that Clay Andrews Racing would form in mid-2005. Gilliland made his Busch Series debut at Phoenix, qualifying 28th. However, he was involved with an early crash and finished 43rd. Gilliland made the other Phoenix race later in the year, but had the same result. He was 43rd after ignition troubles. Also, he ran the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevy at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Craftsman Truck Series with a 22nd-place finish.

Meanwhile, Gilliland raced in the Grand National Division in 2005 and won the Toyota All-Star Showdown in 2005 when apparent winner Mike Olsen was disqualified for light wheels wider than regulation.[1] The win brought Gilliland to the attention of Busch and Cup series team owners.

Gilliland began running the No. 84 Clay Andrews Chevy part-time in 2006, during which time he was mentored by former Sprint Cup race winner Jerry Nadeau. Gilliland, however, struggled to finish races, earning a best result of 29th in his first four starts of the year. However, in his next outing, Gilliland scored his first career Busch Series win at Kentucky on June 17. Gilliland drove the No. 84 Hype Manufacturing Chevrolet to victory, becoming the first driver of 2006 to win a Busch race who was not also running a full-time Nextel Cup schedule. FX television announcer Hermie Sadler called the victory "the biggest upset in Busch Series history".

Sprint Cup Series

2007 M&Ms car
Gilliland's 2013 car

Gilliland made his first attempt to make a Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, in the No. 72 CJM Racing Chevrolet, qualifying 31st, and finishing 32nd. In August 2006, Gilliland replaced Elliott Sadler as the driver of the M&Ms-sponsored Ford in the NEXTEL Cup Series. In qualifying for the 2007 Aaron's 499 on April 28, Gilliland recorded a speed of 192.069 miles per hour (309.105 km/h), which was identical to Jeff Gordon for the pole position. As Gordon had the points lead at the time of the race, Gilliland started the race in second, giving the pole to Gordon.[2] On October 7, he qualified on the pole for the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the first pole of his career. He won his second career pole at the Daytona 500, his first points-paying race at the track, and finished 28th in NEXTEL Cup points. Gilliland drove part-time in the Busch Series for Team Rensi Motorsports with a sponsorship from FreeCreditReport.com in 2007, splitting the driving duties at Rensi with rookie Richard Johns. His best finish was a tenth at Daytona. In 2008, FreeCreditReport became his Cup sponsor and he had two top-ten finishes.

In January 2009, his No. 38 Sprint Cup team was closed due to a lack of sponsorship and his points from 2008 were moved to the No. 96 team of Bobby Labonte. After missing the Daytona 500, he was hired by TRG Motorsports for the rest of the 2009 season, with sponsorship from Capital Window and American Monster.

On September 18, 2009, Gilliland's future was thrown into question following TRG's announcement that Labonte would drive the No. 71 Chevrolet for seven of the final twelve races of the season while Erik Darnell drove the No. 96 Ford. Gilliland raced five additional times for TRG that season, also driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and Robby Gordon Motorsports. He drove for the Wood Brothers (filling in for Bill Elliott) at Atlanta and for Gibbs at Lowe's, Texas, and the season finale at Homestead. At the Auto Club Speedway in October, Gilliland relieved a sick Kyle Busch after parking his normal ride. He raced in Phoenix for Phoenix Racing. At the end of the 2009 season, he left TRG Motorsports and joined Front Row Motorsports.

In 2010, Gilliland drove the majority of the season with Front Row Motorsports in a third car, with his old number, 38, and got new numbers 34, and 37. He attempted the Daytona 500 for BAM Racing and failed to qualify. His best finish came at Martinsville and Sonoma, a 19th at both tracks.

He returned to Front Row Motorsports in 2011, to the Taco Bell car. He finished third in the 2011 Daytona 500, Front Row's best finish to that point, and finished in the top-10 later that year at Talladega. For 2012, he moved to the team's No. 38 car.[3] Gilliland and his team received a multi-race sponsorship from Modspace for the 2012 racing season.

In 2013, at the spring Talladega race, Gilliland pushed FRM teammate David Ragan to victory in a green-white-checkered finish that saw Gilliland notch a career-best finish of second, giving FRM a one-two finish in the race.[4]

Gilliland won the pole for the 2014 Coke Zero 400, with a lap speed of 199.322 miles per hour (320.778 km/h) his first pole since 2007, after qualifying ended early due to rain.[5] It was the first pole for the Front Row Motorsports team.

Gilliland finished 11th at the season opener at Daytona in 2015.

Gilliland was replaced by Landon Cassill in 2016,[6] but returned to FRM for the Daytona 500 in the No. 35.[7] However, he failed to qualify for the race.[8]Though the 500 was only supposed to be a one race deal, Gilliland and Front Row announced plans to run at Talladega in April. Gilliland qualified the race beating Josh Wise, and finished 17th when he was 3rd two to go.

Personal life

Gilliland was a high school golf teammate of Tiger Woods[9] at Western High School in Anaheim.

He is married to wife Michelle and the couple have two children, Todd and Taylor.

His son Todd has a racing career and on April 26, 2015, became the youngest winner in the history of ARCA at age 15 and 2 days with a win at Salem Speedway. Todd followed it up with a win at the K&N Pro Series West race at Phoenix International Raceway, making three generations of the Gilliland family to have won in the series.

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.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500
Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish
2007 Robert Yates Racing Ford 1 8
2008 Yates Racing 32 28
2010 BAM Racing Toyota DNQ
2011 Front Row Motorsports Ford 39 3
2012 33 23
2013 25 38
2014 17 36
2015 26 11
2016 DNQ

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

References

  1. "Fallen All Star". Motor Racing Network. November 17, 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  2. "Jeff Gordon Claims First Talladega Pole". Talladega Superspeedway. April 28, 2007. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  3. "Front Row Motorsports signs David Ragan for 2012 NASCAR season". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. January 16, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
  4. Hinton, Ed (May 5, 2013). "David Ragan wins for the underdogs". ESPN. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  5. "Gilliland wins rain-shortened qualifying at Daytona". The News & Observer. July 4, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  6. "Cassill Joins Front Row Motorsports for 2016 Season". Front Row Motorsports. January 20, 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
  7. Turner, Jared (February 10, 2016). "David Gilliland lands a ride for the Daytona 500". Fox Sports. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
  8. "Starting Line Up by Row: 58th Annual Daytona 500" (PDF). Jayski's Silly Season Site. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  9. 10 questions for David Gilliland
  10. "David Gilliland – 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  11. "David Gilliland – 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  12. "David Gilliland – 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  13. "David Gilliland – 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  14. "David Gilliland – 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  15. "David Gilliland – 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  16. "David Gilliland – 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  17. "David Gilliland – 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  18. "David Gilliland – 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  19. "David Gilliland – 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  20. "David Gilliland – 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  21. "David Gilliland – 2005 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  22. "David Gilliland – 2006 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  23. "David Gilliland – 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  24. "David Gilliland – 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  25. "David Gilliland – 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  26. "David Gilliland – 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  27. "David Gilliland – 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  28. "David Gilliland – 2005 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  29. "David Gilliland – 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  30. "David Gilliland – 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved February 28, 2015.

External links

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