MARTINSVILLE, VA — Sherrills Ford, North Carolina native Todd Gilliland seemed poised to become one of the youngest winner in ValleyStar Credit Union 300 history after starting fifth and leading 88 laps in the 2015 edition of the race. However, on a late-race restart, Gilliland was knocked up the track by teammate RD Smith, which caused him to lose track position and forced him to settle in as the last car on the lead lap in 24th.
Gilliland was upset that the he failed to take the checkered flag that day after turning in a dominating performance, but the 18-year-old will return to Martinsville Speedway this weekend driving one of five cars being fielded by Nelson Motorsports. Gilliland has witnessed firsthand the success of Barry Nelson’s operation in Late Model racing, which has given him confidence as he looks to finish what he started in 2015.
“It’s been awesome just to get the opportunity to come back here with such a great team,” Gilliland said. “Hopefully we run just as well as we did a few years ago and seal the deal. Working with my crew chief Marcus Richmond kind of got the door open with Nelson Motorsports, and we’ve been talking about it all year, and it ended up coming together late. This is a very special race, and you don’t get many opportunities to win a clock, but this year I think we got one.”
Gilliland’s career would take off after his strong performance in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 that year, but he had already developed a reputation as one of the best NASCAR prospects in the country before taking a lap at Martinsville. Gilliland ended up winning the first event in CARS Response Energy LMSC Tour history at Southern National Motorsports Park in 2015 after passing veteran Deac McCaskill in the closing laps, and would follow that up with a win in his first ARCA Racing Series start at Toledo Speedway almost two months later.
Gilliland signed on to drive for Bill McAnally Racing to compete in the K&N Pro Series West for 2016, where he would go on to pick up six victories and 11 Top 5’s, which helped him secure the series title by 13 points over Ryan Partridge. Gilliland would go on to post near identical statistics in the 2017 K&N Pro Series West season while balancing out a full-time season in the K&N Pro Series East, as he won 10 races between the two divisions and picked up his second consecutive championship in the West division.
The dominance displayed by Gilliland drew the attention of Kyle Busch, who signed him to part-time schedule during the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. Gilliland ended up joining Kyle Busch Motorsports full-time in 2018 after he turned 18 in May, and currently finds himself 10th in the series point standings after posting three Top 5s and leading a combined 96 laps in his 14 starts.
With Gilliland having been in the Toyota development pipeline for the past couple of years, he remains confident that he can repeat his performance from 2015 and take home a grandfather clock. As he looks back on the race now, Gilliland believes that he could have done a few things differently to have a better chance at the victory, but is still proud of how he performed and how that night changed his career for the better.
“It was really good experience for me at my age then,” Gilliland said. “At that point, we were looking to move up into the K&N Series, so it was a huge confidence booster even though we didn’t win that race. Coming back here with the Late Models, I have a lot more confidence and a lot more experience than I did back then, so I don’t see why we can’t do the same thing.”
Gilliland will have several veteran drivers to rely on as teammates throughout the weekend, including Timothy Peters, who enters the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 as the defending winner of the event. Rounding out a talented lineup for Nelson Motorsports will be current CARS Response Energy LMSC Tour points leader Bobby McCarty, 2016 Whelen All-American Series champion Matt Bowling and CARS Response Energy Tour regular Brandon Pierce.
Gilliland is looking forward to competing in a Late Model once again at Martinsville with more experience and horsepower on his side, but regardless of how the race turns out, he is ready to move on from the disappointing conclusion to his race in 2015. Gilliland admitted that what happened that day is behind him, and that he is ready to apply all of the knowledge that he has obtained over the past couple of years into bringing home a trophy for him and his father, David.
“We didn’t like the end of the race, but at that moment, it was one of the biggest stages I had ever been on, and I actually performed,” Gilliland said. “That day my restarts were horrible, so hopefully I’m a little bit better at that now, but there were so many positives we could have taken away from that. It’s racing, stuff happens and you can’t live in the past too long.”
While Gilliland is looking forward to working with his teammates, he knows that they have agendas of their own, as Peters is looking to join Philip Morris as the only three-time winner of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, while McCarty, Bowling and Pierce will look to add their first Martinsville trophy. Gilliland plans to lean on his teammates all weekend, but he stated that teamwork will go out the window once the white flag waves.
