Sixth At Indy Provides Bright Spot For Gilliland & FRM

Todd Gilliland in action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. (Rusty Jones/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

SPEEDWAY, Ind. – By any definition, Todd Gilliland’s fourth full season in the NASCAR Cup Series hasn’t been pretty.

In a year where he became the senior driver in a younger, refreshed Front Row Motorsports lineup, Gilliland has languished well outside of playoff contention and seen both his average starting position and average finish drop slightly compared to 2024.

But Gilliland found an opportunity to shine Sunday on a big stage at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Front Row Motorsports driver capitalized on the moment.

Gilliland finished sixth in the 29th Brickyard 400, securing his first top 10 since Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in March and his best finish of the season through 22 races.

Sunday was his second-straight sixth-place finish in the Brickyard 400 since it returned to the Cup Series calendar last season.

“It’s crazy to finish sixth here last year and this year; it’s a chaotic race for sure. There’s a lot of stuff that went into our race today,” said Gilliland. “Obviously, we missed a lot of the wrecks at the end. I felt like we had a plan to put ourselves in a good spot and advance through the field. In the end and that’s all you can do.”

The 25-year-old qualified 19th on Saturday, and during the race was able to work his way through the field. He avoided any damage, and was able to hang around the top 10 through two overtime restarts after a short rain delay to secure his strong result.

While staying clean on pit road throughout the day and executing fuel strategy, Gilliland earned 31 points on the day. He also climbed four spots in the regular season standings and is now back inside the top 30 in 28th place.

Throughout Gilliland’s Cup Series career now, the ‘Racing Capital of the World’ has treated him well in four starts between the road course and oval layouts. He has three top-six finishes, including a Cup Series career-best of fourth on the road in 2022 and his back-to-back sixths on the oval.

The iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis oval is now statistically the 25-year-old’s best track in the NASCAR Cup Series in two appearances.

Now, with a race finally going the way of the Statesville, N.C., native, he will look to continue building momentum with just four races remaining before the postseason. Although he is a long shot to win his way into the playoff field, there could still be shots for Gilliland and company to fight for top 10s.

Next week the Cup Series heads to Iowa Speedway for its second race at the Midwestern short track. In last year’s inaugural race at Iowa, Gilliland had a strong outing, qualifying in 14th before finishing 12th in the race.

He’s shown flashes of speed at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l, with two top-16 finishes, but his best shot at a possible win is the regular-season finale at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway.

Front Row Motorsports has been one of the top teams on restrictor plate tracks in the Next Gen era, and also won the 2021 Daytona 500 with former team driver Michael McDowell the year prior to the introduction of NASCAR’s seventh-generation vehicle.

In the meantime, small steps toward something bigger are always positive for a team looking to right the ship on a difficult season. That quest continues for Gilliland in the month of August.

“Our car had a lot of speed when we needed it today, so I’m happy for that and for our Front Row guys,” said Gilliland.

Coverage of the Iowa Corn 350 powered by Ethanol from Iowa begins Sunday, Aug. 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.