NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Overview
Event: M&M’s 200 (Race 10 of 23), 200 Laps – 60/60/80; 200 Miles
Location: Iowa Speedway in Newton (7/8-mile oval)
Date/Broadcast: June 15, 2019 at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series heads to Iowa Speedway in Newton this weekend, where 19-year-old Todd Gilliland will make his second series start at the 7/8-mile facility. Last year, the young driver started fourth but was relegated to a 29th-place finish when his race ended after an accident on lap 103. In two K&N Pro Series East and West starts at Iowa, Gilliland won both of the combination races between the eastern and western iterations of the series, leading 87% (261/300) of the combined laps in the 2016 and 2017 events.
- Last week at Texas Motor Speedway, Gilliland earned his second-career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series pole in one round of single-vehicle qualifying. Under the lights, Gilliland quickly jumped to the lead and led the first five laps before dropping to second place. He remained at the front of the field, leading for a second time in Stage 2 for 26 additional laps before losing control on a restart and making contact with the wall, ending his night.
- So far in 2019, Gilliland has recorded one pole, 39 laps led, one top-five and four top-10 finishes and has an average starting position of 7.7 and an average finish of 12.9. He currently ranks ninth in the Gander Trucks championship standings with nine races completed, 26 points behind Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) teammate Harrison Burton.
- Michael Shelton will sit atop the box this weekend for the talented teenager. Shelton is a veteran crew chief with seven Gander Trucks wins under his belt, including one at Iowa Speedway with James Buescher in 2013.
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Todd Gilliland, Driver Q&A
Talk a little about your experience at Iowa.
“We’ve had some good runs in K&N cars. Won both my starts there in K&N. We were running third last year and I wrecked in the truck, so hopefully we can have another strong run and carry the little bit of momentum we have from our past couple races. We’ve actually had good speed but haven’t had the results. We’ve got that puzzle piece back and now that we’ve got the speed, we just need to go back to finishing these races and being smart. So, changing it up and being better every week.”
How is Iowa different than the 1.5-miles we’ve gone to recently?
“Hopefully it’s more fun. Iowa has always been a cool racetrack for us. You can move around. It races kind of like a mile-and-a-half but you don’t have the aero aspect of it. You can dive to the bottom, slide up in front of people, it’s a really good race and really competitive. There’s going to be a lot of good trucks there and we’re going to be the best one there.”
What’s the most challenging thing about Iowa?
“I think the lack of grip everywhere. That’s part of the reason why you can move from the top to the bottom because there’s no grip anywhere. You can slide around, race side by side with people and give them room and have enough grip to get around the racetrack but not enough to make it a good race. I think that’s the challenging part, but also a little bit of transition from daytime to nighttime and keeping up with the race track all night.”
Todd Gilliland Career Highlights
- In 34 career Gander Trucks starts has collected two poles, seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes and led 247 laps. Gilliland earned a career-best second-place finish at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., in June of 2018.
- Has posted two wins, one pole, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 6.0 across eight career ARCA Racing Series starts. He became the youngest winner in series history with his victory at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway two days after his 15th birthday in May of 2015 and his most recent win came at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on May 3, 2019.
- Crowned the 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West champion after collecting six wins, six poles, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes, making him the youngest champion in the history of any NASCAR national or touring series. Won a second consecutive K&N Pro Series West championship in 2017 after recording six wins, seven poles, 937 laps led, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes across 14 starts.
- In 23 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts has accumulated seven wins, two poles, 15 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 4.5. His most recent victory came at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in April of 2018.
Todd Gilliland’s No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM Tundra:
KBM-045: The No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM team will unload KBM-045 for Saturday’s M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway. Gilliland raced this chassis earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway in March. The machine has one win, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2017, with owner-driver Kyle Busch behind the wheel.
- KBM drivers have 25 starts at Iowa Speedway and have earned three wins, nine top-five and 18 top-10 finishes, with an average starting position of 7.9 and an average finish of 8.4.
- Erik Jones earned two of the organization’s three wins in 2014 and 2015, while William Byron also won there in 2016.
- KBM holds the Gander Truck Series records for most career wins (74) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). In addition to collecting a series-record six Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers; Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
