NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Overview
Event: Vankor 350 (Race 5 of 23), 147 Laps – 35/35/77; 220.5 Miles
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile oval)
Date/Broadcast: March 29, 2019 at 9 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and Sirius/XM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- Todd Gilliland finished 15th in the TruNorth Global 250 at Martinsville Speedway last week after a promising top-10 run was soured in the closing laps after contact with another vehicle forced the No. 4 into the outside wall. Gilliland qualified the No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra third, and remained in the top-10 most of the day, challenging for a top-five before the incident.
- The third-generation driver sits ninth in the NGOTS championship standings, 25 tallies behind points leader Stewart Friesen, with four races completed. He has posted two top-10 finishes, an average starting position of 7.5 and an average finish of 12.5 this season.
- Gilliland has two starts at Texas Motor Speedway, both in 2018. In the first, he started second and led 62 laps en route to a sixth-place finish. In November, he led 60 laps and looked as if he would take the victory, but ran out of fuel after taking the white flag and coasted to a fourth-place finish.
- This is 18-year-old’s first full time NGOTS season behind the wheel of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra. He is once again paired with veteran crew chief Marcus Richmond. Richmond has one win at Texas Motor Speedway in NGOTS competition with Austin Dillon (Nov. 2013).
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Todd Gilliland, Driver Q&A
After two strong runs at Texas last year, are you looking forward to getting back this week?
“Absolutely. I’d say Texas was probably our best, most consistent race track out of the season. We went back there twice and we had top-five trucks both times and that was probably the closest we were to getting our first win. Hopefully, we can have the same performance this week and the same really fast JBL Toyota Tundra out there and come home in Victory Lane.”
What does it take to have a fast truck at Texas?
“Well, Texas is definitely a different track now. A lot of people said it was really high-banked and really fast before the repave. Now (Turn) 1 and 2 is kind of slower and a lot flatter. You’ve got to always be sure you get down to the bottom and you have to cut the center right there to get a good run on exit. Then (Turns) 3 and 4 you’re pretty much wide open the whole race and it’s got a ton of banking — it’s really fast. It’s just about balancing both ends and tying together the whole race track.”
Todd Gilliland Career Highlights
- In 19 NGOTS starts for KBM last season, the Sherrill’s Ford, N.C., native had one pole, four top-five, nine top-10 finishes and led 208 laps. Gilliland earned a career-best second-place finish in the NGOTS at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., on June 23. He led a race-high 62 laps at Texas Motor Speedway in June and another 60 laps in November, including the final lap before running out of fuel on the backstretch coming to the checkered flag.
- Won in two of three starts in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2018. Once in January at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway and again at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in April
- Won a second consecutive NASCAR 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
- Ran six NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series races for KBM in 2017, scoring a career-best third-place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.
- 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
Todd Gilliland’s No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM Tundra:
KBM-045: The No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM team will unload KBM-045 at Texas Motor Speedway for Friday’s Vankor 350. This chassis has 10 starts and one win, at Charlotte in 2017 with owner-driver Kyle Busch behind the wheel. This is the same chassis that Gilliland raced last fall at Texas, where he led 60 laps before running out of fuel in the lead at the end of the race, ultimately coasting to a fourth-place finish.
| Starts | Wins | Average Start | Average Finish | Laps Led |
| 10 | 1 | 7.3 | 8.4 | 235 |
KBM Notes of Interest
- In 41 starts at Texas Motor Speedway, KBM drivers have collected five wins (Kyle Busch, Nov. 2010 and 2014; Erik Jones, Nov. 2015; William Byron, June 2016; and Christopher Bell, June 2017), two pole positions, 12 top-five and 27 top-10 finishes, with a collective average starting position of 8.8 and an average finish of 10.6.
- KBM holds the NGOTS records for most career wins (71) 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).
Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota Tundra 2019 NGOTS Box Score:
| Date | Site | Driver | Start | Finish | Laps | Laps Led | Status | Driver Pts./Pos. |
| 2/15 | Daytona | Todd Gilliland | 3 | 19 | 88/111 | 1 | Accident | 22/18th |
| 2/23 | Atlanta | Todd Gilliland | 11 | 9 | 130/130 | 0 | Running | 54/11th |
| 3/1 | Las Vegas | Todd Gilliland | 13 | 7 | 134/134 | 0 | Running | 96/9th |
| 3/23 | Martinsville | Todd Gilliland | 3 | 15 | 250/250 | 0 | Running | 126/9th |
| 3/29 | Texas | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 5/3 | Dover | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 5/10 | Kansas | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 5/17 | Charlotte | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 6/7 | Texas | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 6/15 | Iowa | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 6/22 | Gateway | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 6/28 | Chicago | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 7/11 | Kentucky | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 7/27 | Pocono | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 8/1 | Eldora | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 8/10 | Michigan | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 8/15 | Bristol | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 8/25 | Canadian Tire | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 9/13 | Las Vegas | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 10/12 | Talladega | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 10/26 | Martinsville | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 11/8 | Phoenix | Todd Gilliland | ||||||
| 11/15 | Homestead | Todd Gilliland |
