Sunday was a day that belonged to Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs, and rightfully so, after he held off Team Penske's Ryan Blaney, Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson, and 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick on old tires following two late restart to capture his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 131st career start.
Yet from a pure "wow, look at this" standpoint, the driver of the day is really one who has garnered next to no attention whatsoever in the days following the Food Ci
No, we're not talking about Blaney, whose biggest rival this season has been the No. 12 team's pit crew. And we're not talking about Larson, who was dominant for much of the race as he continues to try to end his 11-month losing streak. We're not talking about Reddick either, despite yet another race in which 2026's four-time winner was a serious challenger for the victory.
We're talking about Todd Gilliland.
Seriously, where is the love (sponsorship pun totally intended) for the driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford?
While you can give his pit strategy some of the credit for getting him track position, the fact is that he kept up the pace when he was at the front, and not many were expecting him to hang onto his spot in the top 10, let alone finish sixth, after he made his way up into the top five.
He had the speed to be a contender, and he capitalized, and that's all you can ask for. The result tied the third-best finish of his five-year career and was by far a season-best. He had finished higher than sixth just once since July 2022.
It was a much-needed result for the Front Row Motorsports team as a whole; none of their three drivers had finished higher than 12th since the two-race stint of superspeedway races to open up the year, when Zane Smith placed sixth and seventh at Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway), respectively.
It's hard to overstate just how big of a deal this was.
And aside from the result itself, the fact that it happened after Gilliland qualified 35th of 37 drivers makes the run even more impressive, let alone the fact that he pulled it off at one of NASCAR's toughest tracks, a track that has historically produced a few clunkers since the Next Gen era began in 2022.
It matched his career-best results (two sixth place finishes in the 2024 and 2025 Brickyard 400s) on non-superspeedway ovals. He finished ahead of Joey Logano, Ryan Preece, Denny Hamlin, and Carson Hocevar to round out the top 10, and he did it after having not finished higher than 24th at the "Last Great Colosseum" since September 2023. His best Bristol result on the concrete surface before Sunday's race was only 16th in six races.
Can Gilliland and Front Row Motorsports keep up the momentum at Kansas Speedway, a track where they actually have had some success (two top 12 finishes a year ago) in recent history? The AdventHealth 400 is set to be shown live on Fox from Kansas starting at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, April 19. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!
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