NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Overview
Event: Corrigan Oil 200 (Race 16 of 23), 100 Laps – 20/20/60; 200 Miles
Location: Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn (Two-mile oval)
Date/Broadcast: Aug. 10, 2019 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- Todd Gilliland and the No. 4 JBL team head to the Irish Hills of Michigan this weekend for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Corrigan Oil 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday afternoon. The 19-year-old driver has only one start at the two-mile facility, last season, where he started second and finished fifth, leading eight laps.
- At Eldora Speedway last week, Gilliland dodged most of the mayhem on the half-mile clay oval to pick up his third top-five finish of 2019, with a fifth-place result after running in the top-five most of the evening.
- So far in 2019, Gilliland has recorded one pole, 39 laps led, three top-five and nine top-10 finishes and has an average starting position of 8.1 and an average finish of 10.9. He currently is seventh in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver point standings and is in a must-win situation to earn a spot in the Gander Trucks playoffs. This weekend at Michigan International Speedway is the final race before the playoff field is set.
- Wes Ward, who has served as shop foreman at KBM since 2015, moves over to the role of full-time crew chief and will be atop the box for Gilliland for the remainder of the 2019 season. Ward is a veteran crew chief with more than 300 Xfinity Series races on his resume, as well as 17 Gander Trucks races with two victories. Ward’s drivers have 11 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Michigan, with two top-five finishes and two top-10 finishes.
- JBL will adorn the hood of the No. 4 Tundra. JBL creates the amazing sound that shapes life’s most epic moments. From iconic events like Woodstock and concerts at Madison Square Garden, to games at Yankee Stadium and weekend road trips, JBL elevates listeners’ experiences with award-winning audio that lets them make the most of every moment. With unmatched professional credentials and over 70 years of delivering industry leading innovation, JBL is the authority in engineering superior sound. JBL is part of the HARMAN portfolio of brands admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. HARMAN designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. In 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Todd Gilliland, Driver Q&A
What do you feel you need to do to get in the playoffs this weekend?
“Michigan is obviously a two-mile race track, pretty big and wide. With the amount of downforce and the drag that these trucks have, you’re pretty much in a pretty close pack the whole race. It’s still single file, it’s not like Daytona or any means like that. You still get a lot of big runs, you have to position yourself where it’s smart down the straightaways to get the best run and in the corners to be able to stay with them and make the best lap time as you go. I feel like I had a pretty good truck there last year, I just got too tight in the race, but all through practice I felt like we were pretty good. I really like the race track. Hopefully, we can be really fast this year and at least be in position to get ourselves in the playoffs.”
Todd Gilliland Career Highlights
- In 40 career Gander Trucks starts has collected two poles, nine top-five and 21 top-10 finishes and led 247 laps. Gilliland earned a career-best second-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Ill., in June of 2018, and followed up with another runner-up finish at Gateway in 2019.
- Has posted two wins, two poles, six top-five and eight top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 5.6 across nine 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 Tundra:
KBM-041: The No. 4 JBL team has prepared chassis KBM-041 for this weekend’s Corrigan Oil 200. This chassis was last used earlier this year by Gilliland at Dover, and has been driven to one win, by owner-driver Kyle Busch at Chicago in 2016.
KBM Notes of Interest
- KBM drivers have collected one win, 326 laps led, 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.2 across 20 starts at Michigan.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch earned the only KBM win at Michigan International Speedway in 2015.
- 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).
