NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Overview
Event: Atlanta 200 (Race 2 of 23), 130 Laps – 40/40/50; 200.2 Miles
Location: Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)
Date/Broadcast: Feb. 23, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN and Sirius/XM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- Last weekend, Todd Gilliland made his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series start at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, starting in the third position and finishing 19th after getting caught up in one of the many wrecks that marred the race on lap 88.
- This will be Gilliland’s first-ever NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series start at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
- The 18-year-old embarks on his first full time NGOTS season behind the wheel of the No. 4 Toyota Tundra in 2019 with veteran crew chief Marcus Richmond.
- Richmond has one NGOTS win at Atlanta in 2012 with Ty Dillon.
- 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.
Todd Gilliland, Driver Q&A
You’ve never raced at Atlanta, but you have raced at Charlotte and Las Vegas, do you think that experience will be helpful this weekend?
“I think just mile and a half experience in general is going to help at Atlanta. We were able to go to the test there when my teammate Harrison Burton was testing and I think I learned a lot from that. You’ve just got to be right on the bottom and hopefully we’ve got one of the best trucks there. I have confidence in my team and it’s going to be a good weekend.”
What are you looking forward to most about this weekend?
“Atlanta looks like a track where you can move around a lot. If there’s someone in front of you, you aren’t stuck in their dirty air the whole time, you can move up and try to get a run around them. I think that’s going to be a lot of fun, you can actually pass and keep air on your nose at all times. Seems like all the lines will work so hopefully you’re moving around adapting throughout the race.”
How does having an experienced crew chief and team help you?
“It helps a lot. Just being back with my same team is a big help, I feel like. Everyone knows each other really well and we have a couple of new pieces, but I feel like it’s all coming together at the right time.”
Todd Gilliland Career Highlights
- 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
No. 4 Tundra – Atlanta Motor Speedway Advance Page Two
Todd Gilliland’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Tundra:
KBM-052: The No. 4 Mobil 1 team will race KBM-052 for Saturday’s Atlanta 200. This chassis has been raced four times, three by Todd Gilliland at Pocono, Chicago and Texas and once by Kyle Busch at Kansas in 2018. Its last outing was in July at Pocono where Gilliland finished seventh.
KBM Notes of Interest
- KBM drivers have collected one win, two poles (Christopher Bell 2017, Kyle Busch 2018), six top-five and seven top-10 finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway. They have earned a collective average start of 5.6 and average finish of 13.8 and have led 418 laps.
- KBM drivers have combined to lead 88.6% (234/264) of the laps in the last two Truck Series events at Atlanta. Christopher Bell became to the first driver under NASCAR’s new format to sweep all three stages of a race after leading 99 of 130 laps en route to victory from the pole in 2017. Busch also led 25 laps in that race. Last year, Busch led a race-high 67 laps and was leading when a caution came out with five laps to go. A miscue on the pit stop relegated KBM’s owner-driver to a 21st-place finish. Noah Gragson led the first 43 laps and finished second.
- In 2018, the No. 4 team had three poles with David Gilliland (Daytona), Kyle Busch (Atlanta) and Todd Gilliland (fall Martinsville), five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes and finished the season ranked 11th in the owner’s championship standings
- KBM holds the NGOTS records for most career wins (68) 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).
