NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Overview
Event: N.C. Education Lottery 200 (Race 8 of 23), 134 Laps – 30/30/74; 201 Miles
Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)
Date/Broadcast: May 17, 2019 at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to Know
- Todd Gilliland and the No. 4 Mobil 1 Tundra team head down the road to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend, located just 30 minutes from the Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) shop in Mooresville, N.C. Gilliland has one start at Charlotte, last season, just days after his 18th birthday, when he was finally allowed to race on tracks larger than 1.25 miles in length. He started in third and finished 10th in his first 1.5-mile speedway start.
- Last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Gilliland earned his first top-five finish of the season with a strong run in the Digital Ally 250, qualifying fifth and finishing third in his first start at the midwestern track.
- So far in 2019, Gilliland has recorded one top-five and three top-10 finishes and has an average starting position of 9.3 and an average finish of 11.7. He currently ranks ninth in the Gander Trucks championship standings with seven races completed.
- This is the 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 earned 10 wins, 62 top-five and 132 top-ten finishes in 272 Gander Truck Series starts with drivers including Dennis Setzer, Ty Dillon, Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter and Noah Gragson. Richmond has earned four top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 11 starts at Charlotte.
- The world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand, Mobil 1 features anti-wear technology that provides performance beyond our conventional motor oils. This technology allows Mobil 1 to meet or exceed the toughest standards of car builders and to provide exceptional protection against engine wear, under normal or even some of the most extreme conditions. Mobil 1 flows quickly in extreme temperatures to protect critical engine parts and is designed to maximize engine performance and help extend engine life.
Todd Gilliland, Driver Q&A
You’re coming off your best finish of the season, does that momentum help you?
“Absolutely. With the struggles we’ve been having lately, qualifying bad and finishing bad, just to have a solid weekend where we qualified fifth and finished third. It’s a different crowd when you run up there in the front and you have to be really aggressive on restarts, stuff like that. It felt really good to be back up there in the battle and hopefully we can be back there again in Charlotte.”
You made your first mile-and-a-half start at Charlotte last year, does it feel good to go back there with some experience?
“That was my first mile-and-a-half last year so I was learning a lot every lap we were out there. It was probably one of my better-ish races, so I’ve been watching the race back over and seeing the things I was doing wrong and right, which is pretty cool. Hopefully we can go back there and build on that and be even better.”
Todd Gilliland Career Highlights
- Across 32 career Gander Trucks starts has collected one pole, seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes and led 209 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 22 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts has accumulated seven wins, two poles, 15 top-five and 20 top-finishes resulting in an average finish of 4.4. His most recent victory came at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in April of 2018.
Todd Gilliland’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Tundra:
KBM-057: The No. 4 Mobil 1 team has prepared KBM-057 for Friday’s N.C. Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This chassis has one outing, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this year, with Gilliland behind the wheel. He started 13th and finished seventh.
- KBM drivers have recorded five wins, three poles, 537 laps led, 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 9.1 across 24 starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch has earned all five KBM victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway, winning in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017.
- KBM holds the Gander Truck Series records for most career wins (72) 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).
