Todd Gilliland Earns Seventh at Talladega, Second Top 10 of 2022

Todd Gilliland kept his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang out of harm’s way to earn an seventh place finish at Talladega. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)LINCOLN, Ala. – As Todd Gilliland has acclimated to the tough, tenacious NASCAR Cup Series, he’s showcased his propensity to shine at the tough, taxing tracks like Talladega Superspeedway.

Like his teammate Michael McDowell, Gilliland had his work cut out for him after qualifying 34th.

However, the 22-year-old quickly made his way up the scoring order, placing 12th in Stage 1.

Gilliland fell back to a 23rd place result in Stage 2 due to a plethora of pit strategies and the usual position shuffling inherent at the 2.66-mile paved track.

After the first 120 laps of green flag racing, business picked up for Gilliland and his No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang efforts fielded by Front Row Motorsports. In fact, one could say he channeled his best Cole Trickle.

With only one caution slowing the field in Stage 3, it meant little margin for error as drivers jockeyed for prime position.

Perhaps Gilliland channeled his best Harris DeVane, an independent ARCA Menards Series racer from the 1990s who drove a Ford entry sponsored by Georgia Peanuts.

While Gilliland may have not been “shot out of a canyon” as the late Benny Parsons said during the telecast of the 1997 ARCA season finale, he likely made the late DeVane proud with his steady efforts behind the wheel.

Heavy hitters shuffled outside of the top 10 in the late going while Gilliland, who demonstrated his car’s speed in Stage 1, capitalized in the final laps.

Gilliland surged his way to the top 10 as he contended with the likes of this double wide action at Talladega. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

Once the dust settled at Talladega, Gilliland crossed the stripe with an seventh place finish, his second top 10 of 2022.

For Gilliland and his team based out of Mooresville, North Carolina, it’s a great day when one can leave Talladega with a top 10 finish and a car nary of a scratch.

“It was great to have Georgia Peanuts on board today,” Gilliland said. “They’re a smaller company out of Georgia and we’re kind of close to home here in Talladega, but I’m just really happy to come home with a top 10.”

Gilliland’s performance was not a random blip in the radar as McDowell earned a podium finish.

Surely, the third generation racer wanted more out of his performance at Talladega. All things considered, Gilliland extracted the most out of his No. 38 car, a testament to the work by crew chief Seth Barbour and the crews at the track and shop.

“Race car drivers are greedy. I wish I could have gotten a couple more there, but it was still a really good day,” he shared. “We ran up front most of the day and my car handled really well, so, overall, there are definitely a ton of positives to take out of this.”

Working up the serial scoring order at Talladega is not an easy feat.

Much less, even for a young racer like Gilliland, there’s the element of courage required to take on such a daring asphalt arena.

All in all, Gilliland highlighted Front Row Motorsports’ strength at Talladega. (Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

“I feel like our superspeedway stuff is pretty good,” he observed. “It’s still scary when we qualified 34th, but to have that kind of speed in the draft is a good thing.”

Much like The Beatles’ tune from 1967, Gilliland had a little help from his friends to get to the front.

Moreover, it’s even better when those friends race under the same banner, a fact not lost upon Gilliland after a race that took three hours, 15 minutes and 23 seconds to complete.

“It’s really nice to have Ford teammates out there,” Gilliland remarked. “I worked a lot with Kevin Harvick and a lot of different Fords. I was really happy to work with a great manufacturer like that.”