By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Though David Gilliland has been racing since Iowa Speedway inception in 2009, the two never crossed paths on the racetrack.
That changed Saturday evening when Gilliland started his first race at Iowa in the Camping World Truck Series. It came with his self-co-owned team DGR-Crosley Racing and ended with a fourth-place finish in the M&M’s 200.
Following a tough practice session and late driving deal, the 42-year-old was dubious about the 200-lap race.
“We just made a decision on Thursday or so [I was going to drive] so a last-minute deal,” Gilliland said. “We really struggled in practice. I had never raced here before, this was my first time ever racing here.”
Despite the early weekend struggles, Gilliland qualified his No. 54 Toyota 12th in the final round. The first 60-lap stage saw little improvement, failing to score stage points, while Stage 2 saw him bump into the top 10 in ninth.
The final stage saw some help for Gilliland, as a crash on lap 137 took out Matt Crafton, Stewart Friesen and John Hunter Nemechek, three who won both stages and led the race for a total of 83 laps.
Gilliland jumped to the top five in the closing restarts, running as high as second before falling back to finish fourth. The result ties his best ever in the Truck Series and his second straight top five of 2018 (finishing fourth at Dover in May).
“I’m really proud of our team, we’ve been working really hard,” he said. “DGR-Crosley, Bo LeMastus my partner, he’s been doing a good job but this was a different truck for us, we wanted to re-evaluate it and see where we’re at.
“I had fun. A great day for our team.”
.@DavidGilliland finishes 4th in his first race at @iowaspeedway. #OldGuysRule 😜 pic.twitter.com/551fUtmGnv
— TRICON (@TRICONGarage) June 17, 2018