Todd Gilliland

Gilliland will return for a second season with the Front Row Motorsports team. However, now the pressure is on the young driver to up his performance and match a level closer to his teammate, Michael McDowell. Gilliland nabbed just two Top 10's in his rookie campaign last year, and finished a distant 28th-place in the final driver standings. He'll have to improve in his sophomore season with a new crew chief as Seth Barbour has moved on to take over the competition director's role at Front Row Motorsports. The crew chief role remains unannounced as of this writing, so Gilliland's potential will be tied a good bit to whomever takes over that role. Gilliland made the jump from the truck series to Cup, which is rare, and it will obviously take him some time to find his footing at NASCAR's top level.

Gilliland gets a bit of a surprise promotion to the Cup Series in this upcoming season. Front Row Motorsports parted ways with Anthony Alfredo at the end of last season, and they will put Gilliland in the No. 38 Ford for 2022. The 21-year-old driver will be one of the few drivers who have directly promoted from the Camping World Truck Series directly into NASCAR's top division, while bypassing the Xfinity Series completely. We're a bit reserved about Gilliland's chances for success given this quick promotion. Although, he does have 93 starts in the truck series with two victories, so there's something to work with here. The big burden will lie with veteran crew chief, Seth Barbour, as it will be his task to quickly acclimate Gilliland to the Cup Series. It will be the most interesting of the rookie campaigns of the upcoming season, to be sure.

Gilliland has been confirmed as returning to the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 team in 2021. The two had a successful debut in the Camping World Truck Series together last season. Gilliland earned four Top-5 and 10 Top-10 finishes en route to a 10th-place finish in the final driver standings. This team and driver are back for another run at challenging for race wins and upping their Top-10 totals. The sponsorship and team support look pretty steady for the FRM team, and Chris Lawson will return to fulfill the crew chief duties. Intermediate ovals seem to be Gilliland's bread-and-butter at this point. That's something to remember in DFS and weekly lineup leagues. As to moving up the standings, it's going to be a tall order given how competitive this division of NASCAR is currently.

Gilliland and Kyle Busch Motorsports parted ways the end of last season. His 2019 campaign there fell a bit short of expectations. However, the 19-year-old driver landed on his feet at Front Row Motorsports. They are starting up a truck series team in association with DGR-Crosley in 2020. While optimism is high and expectations are reasonably high, it will be a bit of a transition for Gilliland. His one win, 14 Top-10 campaign with KBM last season didn't make the cut with that organization. Gilliland will be challenged to approach those numbers with this new race team. With just 48 truck series starts to his credit, this driver is still learning the ropes to some degree. Gilliland has some untapped racing potential, but it remains to be seen if it will emerge in the upcoming season.

KBM is gearing up big behind this driver and race team as Gilliland will take over the No. 4 entry full-time in 2019. The 18-year-old talent made 19 of 23 events with this race team last season and posted some respectably good numbers along the way. It was Gilliland's first near-full schedule in this division of NASCAR, so lessons were learned aplenty. Gilliland managed four Top-5, nine Top-10 finish, and he even grabbed a pole position at Martinsville. The youngster led over 200 combined laps for the season, so he did get a good taste for racing at the front of the pack. Now it's time for Gilliland to up the ante and grab his first-career win, and challenge for the championship. With the help of crew chief Marcus Richmond, it should happen.

KBM made big headlines in promoting Gilliland to the No. 4 Toyota Tundra in the off-season. He takes over the No. 4 truck that Christopher Bell raced to the championship in 2017. Gilliland will be paired with veteran crew chief, Marcus Richmond. The entire situation screams of the vote of confidence that owner Kyle Busch has in the young man. Gilliland turned heads in 2017 in just a part-time slate. The 17-year-old nabbed three Top-10 finishes in just six starts with KBM. Gilliland is the son of long-time NASCAR veteran David Gilliland. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. It's apparent that he has the racing gift. Gilliland won 12 races and back-to-back titles the last two years of racing in the K&N Pro Series West. That didn't happen by accident.