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By Ronald Young
Navigating through the chaos and late-race incidents at Talladega on Sunday, Front Row Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland found himself leading the field on the final restart with just two laps remaining.
Although his position at the front seemed promising initially, the underdog driver was soon overtaken by eventual victor Kyle Larson, ultimately crossing the finish line in 7th position.
“When you’re leading on the last restart at Talladega, you feel like you have a genuine shot to bring it home,” Gilliland said post-race. “It hurts to fall back after being so close, but being in that position teaches you lessons you can only learn by actually being the leader in those high-pressure moments.”
” We just didn’t feel like we had great raw speed, but, overall, we’ll take it,” he added. “That was the first time I feel like I had a real opportunity at one of these things.”
Now in his fifth Cup season, Gilliland has navigated many career highs and lows along with Front Row Motorsports. During this time, the organization has managed driver lineup changes, worked through a NASCAR lawsuit settled last winter, and continued competing directly against NASCAR’s larger super teams.
The organization has shown flashes of speed over the years and has been able to secure four wins including the 2021 Daytona 500 in over 2 decades of Cup Series competition.
However, the 2026 season has proven to be a hit-or-miss affair for Front Row Motorsports. Despite expanding its resources and technical efforts, the organization failed to qualify any of its three drivers for ‘The Chase’ for the third consecutive year. Operating with a smaller footprint and tighter budgets than powerhouse multi-car operations like Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing, FRM continues to face an uphill battle to consistently run up front week in and week out.
The standout moment of Gilliland’s season came during the In-Season Challenge, where he advanced to the finals and captured the $1 million prize over Ryan Blaney. Outside of that impressive five-race summer run, however, top-10 results have been hard to come by, with a solid 6th at Bristol in the spring race standing as his only other top 10 finish.
Gilliland sees those top 10 days as a win for the team as the search for speed and funding continues
“I think you just learn to take the small wins,” Gilliland said earlier this year. “You prepare like you’re going to be battling for the win, and obviously we all want to go out and win, but at some point you have to adjust your expectations and make the most of each day.”
Gilliland sees Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway as a prime opportunity to turn momentum in his favor. Building on recent speed at Phoenix two weeks ago that saw Gilliland run as high as 7th before fading at the end and his Talladega breakout, he aims to translate those lessons into a complete performance at “The Paperclip”—a short track where he has long felt comfortable.
Gilliland placed 9th in the fall race at Martinsville in 2025 and scored his 1st Truck Series win at the track in 2019 while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Could a ‘surprise’ winner emerge on Sunday? Gilliland and FRM sure hope that will happen.
