David Gilliland

David Gilliland
File:TSM350 - David Gilliland - 2015 - Stierch.jpg 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 Cup Series career
331 races run over 11 years
Car no., team	No. 35 (Front Row Motorsports)
2015 position	32nd
Best finish	26th (2013)
First race	2006 Dodge/Save Mart 350 (Sonoma)
Last race	2016 GEICO 500 (Talladega)
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 May 1, 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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, but returned to FRM for the Daytona 500 in the No. 35. However, he failed to qualify for the race.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 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 West Series 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

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NSCC	Pts	Ref
2006	CJM Racing	72	Dodge	DAY	CAL	LVS	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	SON 32	DAY	CHI	NHA	POC	IND	GLN															42nd	1178
	Robert Yates Racing	38	Ford																							MCH 38	BRI 40	CAL 32	RCH 36	NHA 36	DOV 27	KAN 22	TAL 15	CLT 33	MAR 28	ATL 15	TEX 21	PHO 16	HOM 33
2007				DAY 8	CAL 25	LVS 21	ATL 30	BRI 41	MAR 39	TEX 19	PHO 35	TAL 4	RCH 42	DAR 30	CLT 35	DOV 29	POC 34	MCH 17	SON 25	NHA 28	DAY 11	CHI 16	IND 17	POC 39	GLN 33	MCH 28	BRI 30	CAL 25	RCH 22	NHA 39	DOV 24	KAN 34	TAL 27	CLT 25	MAR 25	ATL 42	TEX 28	PHO 28	HOM 32	28th	2924
2008	Yates Racing			DAY 28	CAL 17	LVS 23	ATL 32	BRI 9	MAR 24	TEX 15	PHO 15	TAL 15	RCH 41	DAR 20	CLT 40	DOV 16	POC 16	MCH 27	SON 2	NHA 28	DAY 40	CHI 42	IND 20	POC 34	GLN 40	MCH 26	BRI 22	CAL 23	RCH 18	NHA 41	DOV 19	KAN 22	TAL 40	CLT 25	MAR 32	ATL 27	TEX 42	PHO 35	HOM 27	27th	3064
2009	TRG Motorsports	71	Chevy	DAY	CAL 33	LVS 14	ATL 24	BRI 36	MAR 36	TEX 29	PHO 33	TAL 40	RCH 39	DAR 43	CLT 27	DOV 43	POC 42	MCH 32	SON 32	NHA 40	DAY 40	CHI 42	IND 30	POC 41		MCH 40	BRI 39				DOV 39		CAL 42		MAR 39	TAL				37th	1928
		70																							GLN DNQ
	Wood Brothers Racing	21	Ford																									ATL 19
	Robby Gordon Motorsports	7	Toyota																										RCH 24	NHA
		04																														KAN DNQ
	Joe Gibbs Racing	02	Toyota																															CLT 25			TEX 28		HOM 29
	Phoenix Racing	09	Chevy																																			PHO 30
2010	BAM Racing	49	Toyota	DAY DNQ																																				32nd	2445
	Front Row Motorsports	38	Ford		CAL 26	LVS 30	ATL 26	BRI 23						DAR 35	DOV 25				SON 19				IND DNQ		GLN 27		BRI 26				DOV 30		CAL 20	CLT 28			TEX 29
		37							MAR 19	PHO 32	TEX 29	TAL	RCH 31			CLT 26	POC 33	MCH 35		NHA 35	DAY	CHI 32		POC 30		MCH 36		ATL 20	RCH 37	NHA 33		KAN 32			MAR 37	TAL 33		PHO 38	HOM 25
2011		34		DAY 3	PHO 22	LVS 37	BRI 27	CAL 31	MAR 33	TEX 42	TAL 9	RCH 25	DAR 32	DOV 22	CLT 33	KAN 33	POC 29	MCH 29	SON 12	DAY 16	KEN 31	NHA 25	IND 33	POC 23	GLN 33	MCH 32	BRI 24	ATL 37	RCH 27	CHI 36	NHA 32	DOV 28	KAN 32	CLT 36	TAL 22	MAR 34	TEX 32	PHO 31	HOM 33	30th	572
2012		38		DAY 23	PHO 28	LVS 33	BRI 26	CAL 30	MAR 28	TEX 31	KAN 27	RCH 36	TAL 13	DAR 25	CLT 26	DOV 40	POC 23	MCH 27	SON 26	KEN 28	DAY 31	NHA 27	IND 27	POC 21	GLN 20	MCH 18	BRI 20	ATL 31	RCH 31	CHI 28	NHA 32	DOV 32	TAL 15	CLT 23	KAN 23	MAR 30	TEX 35	PHO 36	HOM 33	30th	605
2013				DAY 38	PHO 37	LVS 28	BRI 24	CAL 29	MAR 28	TEX 32	KAN 23	RCH 27	TAL 2	DAR 29	CLT 20	DOV 37	POC 24	MCH 22	SON 24	KEN 28	DAY 15	NHA 18	IND 35	POC 39	GLN 25	MCH 37	BRI 25	ATL 17	RCH 23	CHI 28	NHA 39	DOV 30	KAN 24	CLT 29	TAL 7	MAR 23	TEX 26	PHO 24	HOM 27	26th	648
2014				DAY 36	PHO 39	LVS 30	BRI 22	CAL 38	MAR 26	TEX 22	DAR 28	RCH 20	TAL 40	KAN 37	CLT 43	DOV 29	POC 28	MCH 26	SON 21	KEN 30	DAY 35	NHA 24	IND 36	POC 17	GLN 22	MCH 21	BRI 25	ATL 28	RCH 29	CHI 34	NHA 27	DOV 33	KAN 30	CLT 32	TAL 29	MAR 22	TEX 34	PHO 24	HOM 31	30th	554
2015				DAY 11	ATL 22	LVS 23	PHO 29	CAL 35	MAR 25	TEX 28	BRI 18	RCH 31	TAL 20	KAN 32	CLT 33	DOV 25	POC 27	MCH 42	SON 43	DAY 40	KEN 29	NHA 21	IND 29	POC 33	GLN 33	MCH 32	BRI 36	DAR 27	RCH 33	CHI 32	NHA 28	DOV 30	CLT 27	KAN 36	TAL 32	MAR 24	TEX 29	PHO 30	HOM 32	32nd	533
2016		35		DAY DNQ	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	MAR	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL 17	KAN	DOV	CLT	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	POC	GLN	BRI	MCH	DAR	RCH	CHI	NHA	DOV	CLT	KAN	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM	-*	-*

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

Camping World Truck Series

* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

External links

• Official website
• David Gilliland driver statistics at Racing-Reference