Top Dog: Todd Gilliland
Just a year ago, you couldn’t blame Todd Gilliland if he would have questioned his future before the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season started.
Front Row Motorsports had opted to put Zane Smith in the No. 38 for six races, a seat that was supposed to solely feature Gilliland. And for a team that featured a rookie driver for four consecutive seasons from 2019-2022, it muddied the picture even more for Gilliland’s fate with the team.
Those questions would be put to rest in the late summer when FRM announced Gilliland would be returning for this season. Yet there was a common belief that the pressure hadn’t quite eased on the 23-year-old to perform.
Following 415 laps in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, Gilliland proved he belongs yet again, scoring a 13th-place finish.
After starting 16th, Gilliland finished a caution-free first stage in (you can guess) 16th! Shocking, considering the “amount of passing,” right?
A pit stop malfunction pit seemingly put Gilliland in dire straits during the stage break, when he exited pit road with a wrench still in the car, prompting a penalty for removing equipment.
However, that did not deter Gilliland, who drove back up to 19th by the end of the stage.
In the final stage, the North Carolinian made an impressive climb into the top 10, settling in eighth for a large part of the run. Despite losing a couple of spots in the final green flag pit stop cycle, Gilliland seemed primed to leave Martinsville with a top 10.
Unfortunately, that all changed when John Hunter Nemechek brought out a late yellow, setting up an overtime restart. Gilliland slipped back to 13th in the final two laps, robbing him of what should have been at least a 10th-place result. Still, he has now finished 13th or better in three of his past four starts at The Paperclip.
FRM’s third-year driver is quietly finding a rhythm in the top half of the field early on. Don’t let his 23.5 average finish fool you; he’s been a consistent sight in at least the top 20 in the first eight races, outrunning his veteran teammate Michael McDowell on several occasions. And as the season wears on, this team will eventually be rewarded for its speed.
How Does it Compare?
There’s good news and bad news for Gilliland’s 13th-place result. The bad news is that it did not top his underdog peers or the most recent finish by the top dog at Martinsville. The good news? That mark was…
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