Todd Gilliland won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ Clean Harbors 150 at Knoxville Raceway Saturday (June 18).
He claimed his third career victory in a one-off appearance for the NASCAR Cup Series driver. Gilliland took the lead from John Hunter Nemechek just before the caution came out and held on for the victory in the final few laps.
“I got us some golf tomorrow, some Father’s Day brunch and some golf…” Gilliland told FOX Sports about he and father David Gilliland’s plans. “This’ll make tomorrow a lot more fun.
“So amazing, man. The Cup Series is tough, just racing every single week. I’ve had like a million people ask me, ‘Is this really what you want to do in your off weekend?’ Absolutely. Nothing beats racing. I tell everyone, ‘I’m young.’ I wish I could do this every single weekend of the year. Just so happy for Seth Smith [crew chief], my whole team, David Gilliland Racing, Ford especially, Front Row [Motorsports] for letting me do it. Really, really cool, just so thankful. Frontline Enterprises, there’s so many people.
“I love the Truck Series, I ran here forever it felt like, so to be able to come back and to get one, man, it’s so special.”
“It’s awesome,” David Gilliland said. “Johnny Gray and I had a long phone conversation on Monday and we reached out to Todd to see if he could run this race for us. I knew he could win here. Just super special for DGR, everybody’s been working real, real hard. Haven’t been off to the start to the season that we were hoping for but hopefully this will be a good shot in the arm.
“Super proud of Todd, super proud of Seth Smith, he’s been with me since day one. He’s won K&N championships. This is his first Truck Series win and I think the first of many to come. I have all the faith in the world in him and in our organization. Just really proud of everybody at DGR, everybody’s been working really hard, this is truly a team effort. Super proud.”
Nemechek was second, Zane Smith was third, Ty Majeski claimed fourth and Stewart Friesen rounded out the top five.
Polesitter Derek Kraus, Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes completed the top 10.
Stage one saw a couple of cautions for incidents. Early on, Christian Eckes turned the No. 40 of Dean Thompson. Then near the end of the segment, Michael Kofoid made contact with Tanner Gray, sending him around slightly into the berm. Spencer Boyd slid into Gray soon after.
At the front…
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