After making huge strides in his second season with Front Row Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (16 top-10 finishes, 10 top fives and a victory at Circuit of the Americas), Todd Gilliland subsequently made the jump straight to the Cup Series for 2022.
The now-22-year-old is with the same team, but the vehicle, competition level and much more have changed for Gilliland. Not only that, but Cup as a whole switched to the Next Gen car, adding yet another adjustment.
The son of NASCAR veteran David Gilliland has yet to record a top-10 finish this year, but has put together multiple top 20s — five in fact — through 13 races so far this season. His best Cup result of 15th came just two weeks ago at Darlington Raceway. Gilliland is a third-generation driver with father David and grandfather Butch, all three of whom have driven the No. 38 at some point or another.
Frontstretch caught up with Gilliland at Richmond Richmond in early April, where he discussed growing up in a racing family, his move to Cup, being one of the first Cup drivers born in the 21st century and more.
Adam Cheek, Frontstretch: What were the differences between your switch from Kyle Busch Motorsports to FRM in Trucks vs. your switch from Trucks to Cup with FRM?
Todd Gilliland: So I feel like the Trucks — like moving from KBM to Front Row — is honestly like a second chance. Obviously, we ran really bad at KBM, and it’s hard to get a second chance sometimes. So yeah, it was definitely super fortunate — Front Row’s able to start that Truck team, and they’re just gonna build it.
That was the coolest part for me too, […] I felt like I was a part of it, like we built it together. And then moving up to the Cup Series, like you said, is a different challenge, but it’s kind of cool to still be within the same shop. And I think just being there in the Trucks gave me a good head start of knowing some of the people, knowing how they go about business.
Cheek: You’re…
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