Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Catching Up With David Gilliland | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Catching Up With David Gilliland | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

0:09
And welcome once again everyone of the Payne X Studio.
0:11
We are going lights out with owner David Gilliland, but also
0:16
former driver as well. David, things are going so well
0:19
for you right now over at Tricon Garage.
0:22
We're going to get back to the truck thing here in just a
0:24
moment, but I was just looking up some stats on you today. 333
0:29
Career Cup Series starts a win on the O'Reilly Series.
0:32
When you look back at your driving career, David, what,
0:35
what do you think of what stands out for you?
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Just a lot of races, you know it, you know the opportunities
0:44
that I've had about some opportunities, some really great
0:46
teams and we've come close to winning.
0:48
We've we've gotten, you know, a handful of poles and different
0:51
series and all that, but, you know, just a little disappointed
0:55
that we never went to Victory Lane in the Cup series.
0:57
We finished second a few times, but you know, just learned a lot
1:02
for sure and really enjoyed my time racing.
1:06
Racing was my passion. It's it's kind of all I've ever
1:08
wanted to do and I got to do it. I got to do it professionally.
1:12
I've had some great sponsors, great partners, met a lot of
1:14
great people, people that are, are still like family with me
1:18
today. So, you know, it's just a, it's
1:20
been a been a wonderful experience and, and now we've,
1:24
we're on the other side, we're on the ownership side and we
1:26
are, you know, kind of giving back and and trying to build
1:29
something special here with Tricon Garage.
1:31
So David, you talk about the early days with you and you and
1:35
your dad. Of course, being on the West
1:37
Coast, I think sometimes people think of NASCAR racing is only a
1:41
Southeastern thing, but man, racing is big from where you
1:44
guys came from. And was that the thing that did
1:47
working with your daddy? Was that the thing that made you
1:49
catch the racing bug? Yeah, for sure.
1:52
You know, my dad was a little bit different at the time.
1:56
He, you know, he, the biggest thing he did for me was, was let
2:00
me work on his race cars and, and learn, you know, he, his
2:04
philosophy for me was he wasn't going to buy me a race car.
2:07
He wasn't going to do any of that.
2:08
He, he told me from day one, he said, I'll, I'll do you a favor
2:11
and I'll teach you how to build 1.
2:13
And if you can figure out how to build 1 and put one together and
2:16
then, then you can go race it. And so, you know, I, I learned
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that way just like a lot of lot of guys in my generation and
2:24
drivers. And that that was one of the
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funny things about Todd, my son growing up.
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You know, that's the way I learned it.
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And I felt like that helped me in my career, understanding the
2:33
race cars, the vehicles, being able to set them up and work on
2:36
them and build them and, and drive them as well.
2:39
But you know, that that time frame is, has been speed up so
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much. There's really not time to do
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that with these kids. You know, Todd started driving
2:48
when he was five years old and, you know, he was full time cup
2:52
when he was 20. So there's not a lot of time in
2:54
there to learn and study the things that these kids are
2:57
needing to study to get at the level to be able to perform the
3:00
way they need to at such a young age.
3:03
So that was a little bit challenging for me, but, but I
3:06
wouldn't change any single thing of the way that my dad and, and
3:10
the way that I was brought up in the way that I learned race cars
3:13
and in my whole career. I'm so thankful for the
3:17
opportunities that I've gotten and all the things, the lessons
3:20
that I've learned on and off the racetrack about racing.
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And, you know, it's been my life for a very long time.
3:26
And I'm, I'm, I'm proud of what we've been able to do.
3:29
David, was there a time for you that you had to make that leap
3:32
of faith that you knew, you know being on the West Coast was
3:35
going to be tough, that you had to make the move to the the
3:37
North Carolina area in order to be a full time race car driver
3:42
And, and how big was that for you?
3:44
Was it difficult to make that move?
3:47
It was extremely difficult, yeah.
3:50
I mean, I knew, you know, you, you as a race car driver, you
3:53
always dream of of the opportunity to be able to come.
3:55
And and obviously my goal all along was to build a race in the
3:59
Cup Series. And you know, the the facts and
4:03
the odds are against you, right. And not too many people get to
4:06
do that or, or get that opportunity.
4:08
And so we had won, you know, the total All Star Showdown.
4:13
I remember when the total All Star Showdown came to Irwindale,
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that was kind of my home track. We ran really good there.
4:18
And I thought, man, if we could ever just win this race, you
4:21
know, I think that could push me over the edge.
4:23
And we won the race and, and nothing really came of it, you
4:27
know, and then Phoenix, Phoenix is the West Coast Daytona.
4:31
And so I always thought if we could win out there, you know,
4:35
we won several times out there in different series and still
4:38
nothing really kind of pushed it over that edge.
4:40
And so I had the opportunity to race for Clay Andrews and he
4:44
wanted to run some Bush races at the time and he wanted to do it
4:48
out of California, Corona, CA. And, and we, we tried it, we
4:53
went to Phoenix and, and we had a heck of a day.
4:55
We, we struggled and you know it, it's just tough.
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And I knew it was tough back then, but not even being out
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here, I, I had no idea really exactly what we were up against.
5:05
But Clay, I went to Clay Andrews and, and he gave me the
5:09
opportunity to, to move to North Carolina and, and start a team.
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And so I came home and I walked in the door and told my, my wife
5:18
Michelle at the time that, you know, hey, we, we got an
5:21
opportunity and, and we're going to move to North Carolina.
5:24
And, and I remember her saying when I said, man, I'm, I'm going
5:28
in two weeks. And you can imagine how that
5:31
went over and, and so, but she was, Michelle was, was wonderful
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and, and, and is a wonderful person and was always super,
5:41
super supportive of, of me and my racing and, and really
5:44
sacrificed a lot of her life, you know, to, for me to, to, to
5:48
follow my dreams and just like a lot of these other wives and
5:52
significant others do. And so, yeah, we did that.
5:56
We moved, took a leap of faith and, and it was a clay had
5:59
promised me like 7 races and I just figured, man, if, if it
6:05
don't work, I'll I'll get a job and I'll work in racing.
6:09
Racing's my passion. That's what I know.
6:11
And so yeah, I moved out to North Carolina, moved my family
6:15
away from our family. We had no family out here.
6:18
We didn't have anything. And like I said, took a leap of
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faith and, and, and we moved and, and everything kind of
6:25
worked out, thankfully. And so we were blessed and, and
6:28
went to Kentucky, I think our seventh race or something like
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that. And, and we won.
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And it's funny when, when we did, oh, back-to-back to the
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story, when we left my father-in-law, we, we moved
6:40
right before Christmas and he told me you took the merry out
6:43
of Christmas. I just want you to know.
6:46
So it didn't go over well. Believe me, it did not go over
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well. And it was tough, but you know,
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the kids were young enough so for them to adapt in school and
6:54
all that was, was was good. But you know, we were able to
6:58
come out and, and during that time, during my racing time on
7:01
the West Coast, I had met with like Hendrick Motorsports and
7:05
Roush and a lot of teams out here, but just nothing ever
7:11
really big enough or monumental enough to really push it over
7:16
the over the edge to, to really solidify an opportunity to come
7:20
out and do something. And so when I won Kentucky, my
7:24
phone literally rang off the hook.
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I remember I had borrowed my, my car owner's motorhome at the
7:30
time, Clay Andrews and I drove it there myself and Michelle and
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the kids were in the motorhome with me and we drove and, and we
7:38
won that race and it was significant.
7:40
It was, it was a, it was a big deal.
7:43
But Jerry Naidu was kind of my driver coach at the time.
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And he told me that night, he said, man, you have no idea your
7:49
life has changed forever after this win.
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And I was just said, Nah, I don't, I'm, I'm not buying it.
7:55
I'm not buying it. I've won big races before and
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and I just I, I'm knocking in my hopes up.
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And I was driving home. I got up, got up in the morning
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and we didn't celebrate too, too terribly much that night and
8:09
started driving home And my phone rang and it was Richard
8:11
Childress. And he said, man, what you did
8:16
tonight, last night was very, very impressive.
8:18
And you know, we'd like to talk to you and, and I, and I said,
8:22
man, I thought it was a joke. I thought someone was playing a
8:25
prank on me really, but but anyway, it ended up being that
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and then and we had several incredible opportunities after
8:32
that win and it really was a monumental day and and a big win
8:36
and really kind of pushed pushed us over the edge and we got an
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opportunity with Robert Yates. Doug Yates called me and got my
8:45
opportunity with with Robert Yates racing and M and Ms. and
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it was just a a wonderful opportunity and something that
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I'll forever be thankful for it. It's it's kind of a crazy story.
8:58
Everybody in racing kind of has them.
9:00
And, you know, it seems like a lot of people are so close.
9:03
I mean, there was so many times that that there was a million
9:07
reasons to, to stop or not race. And for some reason we kept
9:10
pushing and kept going and and and and here we are today.
9:15
David, when race is in your blood like that, I know one of
9:17
the toughest things sometimes for drivers you get, so I would
9:21
say addicted to the competition, would love it so much that it's
9:25
hard to transfer, transform from driver into another phase of
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your life. What was that transition like
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for you when you knew the driving career was over?
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Were you already on the way to being an owner, or was were
9:38
things up in the air for you? Yeah, no, it was like I said,
9:41
being a being a car owner was never, is never a passion, never
9:45
a dream, never never really anything of mine.
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And and we had built the late model for my son Todd and we
9:53
were racing his quarter midgets at the time.
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And we had Danny Crafton, Matt Crafton's dad kind of mentoring
10:00
him and, and taking him over all over while I was racing Cup.
10:04
And, and, and so we did that. And when we transitioned into
10:11
taking him to the next step of the stock car stuff, that was
10:14
really the main reason why I quit racing is because we would
10:18
go and build these cars for Todd and we'd go test with them
10:20
during the week and he'd do good.
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And, and then, you know, we, we started developing obviously a,
10:29
a good relationship of, of me being able to help him as driver
10:32
coach, stuff like that. And then I'd be gone while he's
10:35
out racing, went racing these races.
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I remember watching my Michelle would FaceTime all the races and
10:41
I'd be watching on my little, you know, screen and then she'd
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be Facetiming him. And gosh, it broke my heart.
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It was just so hard to to not be there.
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And especially when Todd was like, man, why aren't you here?
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You know, he didn't understand. And obviously he knew I was
10:55
working and racing, but, and so I decided to quit racing and,
11:01
and, and help him and, and build his late model stuff and, and,
11:05
and we did that and he did very, very well.
11:08
And, and so we went to sell his late model stock car and to
11:15
transition over into super late model racing.
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And we talked to a couple people about buying the car and there
11:20
was several people that said, we'll buy the car, but we really
11:22
don't have anybody to work on it or do anything with it.
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And so that's kind of how it started.
11:27
And we started kind of maintaining it and keeping it at
11:29
our shop and hired some really, really good people and, and
11:36
yeah, started from there. So we, we graduated from late
11:39
model stocks to super late models in the ARCA and, and then
11:43
trucks. And so for a long time we, we
11:46
raced all four series and out of David Gillan racing and that
11:51
was, that was a bit much. But now we've, we've kind of
11:54
narrowed it down to just the, the Craftsman Truck Series.
11:57
And, and that's been good for us.
11:58
And you know, Toyota's been a great partner of ours and have
12:02
allowed us to kind of narrow up our field a little bit and
12:06
concentrate just on the trucks and that's been a good thing for
12:09
us. So, you know, one of the
12:11
questions I got a lot was you, Are you sure you want to start a
12:16
truck team? Like, you know, because there's
12:18
the reality is a lot of lot of truck teams and owners they've
12:21
they've come and gone and, and it's not an easy business.
12:24
It's not, not an easy task to do for sure.
12:27
But I just felt like I had raced for enough teams and, and been
12:30
around racing long enough that I felt like, you know, my main
12:35
motivation was that I felt like I could build a team that that
12:38
was truly different. And, you know, from the way we
12:41
treated our people, you know, to the, the, the, the products that
12:45
we built on the competition side and just the, the structure and,
12:50
and it's taking a long time to get where we're at for sure.
12:54
You know, even from the beginning, the early days, we
12:56
won races, but we didn't, didn't necessarily win a lot of races
12:59
and we weren't consistent on a weekly basis.
13:02
And, and so to get to where Tricon Garage is today and, and
13:07
like the year that we had last year and all that, it takes,
13:10
takes a lot of time and it takes great people and you know, it,
13:14
it all starts, starts from the beginning.
13:17
And, and we have a, an incredible group of, of men and
13:20
women at Tricon Garage that are extremely dedicated and, and
13:25
they're working there for the right reasons.
13:27
And, and then I say that it's not just for a paycheck, it's,
13:30
it's because they truly believe in the vision of Tricon Garage
13:33
and kind of what, what we're doing and where we're headed.
13:37
And, and it's fun. It's, it's makes it enjoyable to
13:40
do. And it's, it's definitely
13:42
challenging. It's not easy, even though years
13:45
like like we had last year from the outside looking in, you
13:49
know, we, we won a lot of races, let a lot of laps and, and a lot
13:51
of stuff went right, a lot of stuff went our way, But it's
13:53
still extremely difficult. And I have a lot of respect for
13:56
every single car owner that's, that's in any series, you know,
14:00
across the, the racing industry, because it's not easy, but, but
14:04
it's challenging. And, and that challenge is kind
14:06
of what drives me. You know, that's the, the
14:10
biggest take away that I could take from even driving to work
14:12
from now is, is that challenge. And, and it's difficult.
14:16
And with racing, there's so many things that can happen outside
14:19
of your control that you know, and it makes it kind of hard to,
14:23
to keep your mind focused kind of kind of where you're going.
14:27
But you know, our main focus and our main goal is, is what we
14:29
tell our our men and women to track on garages.
14:32
We just really got to focus and try and control the things that
14:34
we can control and keep doing those right.
14:36
And the rest of the stuff will follow.
14:39
So, yeah, David, we see you guys in Victory Lane a lot, and I
14:41
don't think people quite understand that that's just not
14:44
where it all is. It starts at, you know, 67 AM
14:48
and goes late into the night. But I think you guys as a team
14:52
do a better job than about anybody we've seen in a long
14:55
time balancing this driver development, making drivers
14:59
ready for the next level, but winning at the same time.
15:02
Is that something that you guys think about or, or does
15:05
everything just simply come together with the work you put
15:08
in? Yeah, it's tough.
15:10
I mean, you look at these these truck fields, the competition,
15:14
you know, this year seems like and last year, I mean a lot of
15:16
cup guys running and and it's hard, you know, the experience
15:20
level from a a you know, a a capable winning cup driver to
15:27
the average Truck Series driver that's that's coming along just
15:31
from an experience level is is very, very hard to compete with.
15:36
And so, you know, and, and that's, and we know that.
15:40
And so, and that's what I keep telling our guys, right?
15:42
It's easy to get complacent. It's easy to look back and say,
15:44
man, we won 13 races next last year.
15:46
Do we really need to build 10 new trucks?
15:49
Do we really need to keep developing our front clip?
15:53
Do we keep really need to keep doing all these things?
15:55
But you know, our mindset is, you know, we our trucks have to
16:00
be the reality is our trucks have to be better than than
16:04
anybody else's out there. If we want these kids with less
16:06
experience to go beat Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain and Carson
16:11
Hosovar. And, you know, these guys from
16:14
the country stories that come down here like to expect these
16:16
kids with less experience to go out and, and beat them heads up
16:20
is probably not a, a, a good solid plan to go out and, and be
16:26
successful. And so, you know, we have to
16:28
work harder and, and, and try and, you know, have a better
16:31
vehicle. And, and that's what we do and,
16:34
and get these so that we can get our drivers confidence to where
16:37
when our vehicles aren't quite as good, then they can carry the
16:40
load on their back and, and, and, and beat these guys.
16:43
And, and that's what that's what our guys have been able to do.
16:46
So, but it starts with confidence and, and confidence
16:48
comes with fast vehicles and, and, and, and that's what we try
16:52
and really work to do. And then we don't stop.
16:54
Matt Peucha is our competition director and you know, he does a
16:58
great job of pushing us all, myself included, each and every
17:03
day to be better and better and better.
17:05
And, and, you know, we just, we don't stop.
17:09
And then Toyota and Toyota racing, all those, all the, the
17:13
folks over there, they're just, they give us the resources that
17:16
we need. And, you know, when we go to
17:19
them and, and if, if it's a solid plan and we go to them
17:22
and, and, and can prove that we need it and, and it'll make us
17:24
better, They're, they're, they're up for the, the
17:27
challenge and, and right there with us.
17:29
And so it, it's great. You can't, you can't do this.
17:32
You can't, you know, have the success that Tricon garage has
17:35
had without great partners. Johnny Gray, my, my partner on
17:39
the ownership side and Kevin Ray, you know, just a, a great
17:42
group that you know, we're all racers.
17:45
We've all, all raced ourselves and we all believe and have a
17:48
vision of winning. We like, we like spraying water
17:53
and champagne and Victory Lane and, and taking those pictures.
17:56
So, you know, we're going to work hard to keep trying to do
17:58
that. David, when you guys celebrated
18:01
the championship last year, Corey Heim was just so special.
18:03
And what you guys put together with that truck and we we kind
18:07
of joke doing the post race show on the radio.
18:09
We say, hey, what are these guys do for an encore after that
18:12
season? But here you are back again and
18:15
getting a guy like Kaden Honeycutt to Victory Lane.
18:19
That must have been really special.
18:20
I remember your comments afterwards, but I said I can't
18:23
wait to ask David about this. How cool it is to get this
18:27
driver to where he is right now. Yeah, it, it is really cool.
18:31
You know, Kaden Honeycutt, obviously everyone's got a lot
18:33
of confidence him and in him and, and that's what why he's in
18:37
the the position and, and the truck that he's in this year.
18:40
He's earned that, that spot 100%.
18:42
And I've, I've told him since day one, you know, but there's
18:45
definitely a lot of, a lot of pressure, I guess, to, to, to
18:49
get into that seat, especially after the season that Corey Heim
18:52
had last year, right? And, and the amount of races
18:55
that he's won and, and the records that he set last year.
18:58
And so, you know, from day one, I just kept telling Kaden, like,
19:01
look, you are not Corey Heim. No one expects you to be Corey
19:05
Heim. You know, your ultimate goal is
19:07
to be better than Corey Heim. And so, and our ultimate goal is
19:09
to help you be better than Corey Heim.
19:11
So, you know, and, and we're starting today, right?
19:15
We're starting today to try and get better.
19:17
And, and that's what we do. We, we each and every race, you
19:20
know, we have very detailed post race meetings.
19:23
Actually last week it got a little heated before Watkins
19:27
Glen even. And you know, about some
19:29
restarts and different things that we needed to clean up and
19:32
we need to keep working on and just make sure that we're
19:34
working on the same things. You know, it's, it's no
19:38
different than us. If we go to a racetrack and, and
19:40
we win or we don't win, we come back and we don't ever just sit
19:43
on our, our, our, you know, get back on our heels and say, oh,
19:46
we got stuff good enough to win. When we go back to the Watkins
19:49
Glen next year, we're going to win again.
19:50
That's not the way it works. We are, you know, very deeply
19:55
analyzing every single thing about our race vehicles and how
19:58
we can make them better. And the drivers are no
19:59
different. And so.
20:01
And we have Blake Cook and and Trevor Bayne that are some
20:04
driver coaches for us and our driver and our team.
20:07
And they help and provide the drivers with incredible
20:10
information. And you know, it's it's, it's
20:12
every single week trying to get better, you know, and, and like
20:15
I said, we want to beat the Kyle Bushes and, and all those guys
20:19
when they come and race with us, it just makes it that much more
20:22
special. And, and it that's not easy to
20:25
do that that don't get done without hard work.
20:27
And so and structure and so that's that's what we're doing.
20:31
But very extremely proud of of Kaden.
20:34
He's done a great job. He had an absolutely incredible
20:37
weekend, winning the ARCA race down the truck race, then coming
20:40
home and winning both the cars to a race is on the same day.
20:42
I think they said that was the first time that anybody's ever
20:44
done that. So you know, you you've been
20:46
around racing a long time. Confidence goes so far and is
20:51
worth so much. And so, you know, he hadn't won
20:54
a truck race. He's been close, he's LED laps
20:56
he's had, you know, he probably should have won a handful of
20:59
races, but for whatever reason, Woulda coulda shoulda right.
21:02
He didn't bring the checkered flag home.
21:04
And so to, to be able to accomplish that this weekend and
21:07
be able to beat Conor Zilich, head up, straight up, you know,
21:11
and, and, and SVG and, and all the other the incredible drivers
21:16
that were in the field there at Watkins Glen, to be able to do
21:19
that has definitely boosted his confidence.
21:21
And I think, I think the Sky's the limit, you know, not just
21:24
for him, but, but all the drivers at Tricon Garage.
21:26
We got, we had a every Monday we have a meeting in front of the
21:29
shop with, you know, we have about 80 people and, and kind of
21:32
address them and go over the weekend.
21:34
Let the, the men and women that don't get to travel, we kind of
21:37
go over our weekend and kind of give them the highlights of kind
21:41
of how it went. And, but I brought up right now
21:43
we have 4 trucks in the top 12 in owners points and that's
21:48
something that we haven't had before.
21:50
And, and so to do that and the fifth one, you know, he'd be
21:55
there too. But obviously racing Tanner's
21:57
had some crazy stuff happened this year, but he's not too far
22:01
out of it and he can definitely claw his way back in and expect
22:05
him to do so. But you know, we've we've
22:07
elevated the whole Tricon garage across the the whole field.
22:12
And so you know, four of our teams have won races, 4 separate
22:17
teams have won races in the last, I don't know, 8 races or 9
22:23
races, something like that. So that's that's difficult,
22:26
right? It's hard to have one team win.
22:29
But but as a business model, Tricon garage don't survive with
22:32
one one team winning races. It just don't.
22:35
And you know, we have to have all of our teams be equally
22:38
successful and, and fast and, and, and produce the results.
22:42
And so to, to do that, we've worked hard.
22:45
We have each one, we have the utmost confidence that each one
22:49
of our five teams is capable of, of winning on every given any
22:53
given weekend. And, and, and so far, we, we're
22:56
on the way to proving that. So we got two more.
22:58
We got to get to Victory Lane this year.
23:00
That's our main goal. And boy, if we could do that,
23:02
what what an amazing season that would be.
23:05
Well, and it looks like you guys are well on the way to doing
23:08
that. You know, you talked about Todd
23:09
and his career, David. I don't think people on the
23:12
outside looking and understand it.
23:14
Just because your last name is Gilliland doesn't mean you're
23:16
going to be able to rise to the top of this very, very difficult
23:20
sport. You have to have the skill.
23:22
There's a bunch of people out there that are named Earnhardt
23:25
and Labani and, and names like that that did not advance like
23:29
Todd has done. That's going to be really
23:31
satisfying for you, not just as a former driver, but as a dad as
23:34
well. Absolutely.
23:37
I mean, as a dad and then, you know, other fathers will can
23:42
testify to this, but my proudest moment in racing ever of
23:46
anything is to see Todd succeed, you know, 100 times above
23:50
anything that I've ever done or accomplished, or, you know, even
23:54
seeing my dad or any of that stuff.
23:56
It's just it's just great seeing your son succeed and then be
24:00
better than you were. And you know, he just he works
24:04
extremely hard, same thing, right, Effort, effort equals
24:08
results most of the time. And and he works hard and you
24:13
know, front row Motorsports Bob Jenkins has given him an
24:15
incredible opportunity, you know, from the trucks on to end
24:19
of the cup series. I spent a lot of my end of my
24:22
career at front row and, and Bob Jenkins and, and his family and,
24:26
and that whole group over there. I have a very good relationship,
24:30
strong relationship is with all the years that I've spent over
24:33
there. But certainly that's not why
24:35
Todd has that job. That's not why he's driving that
24:37
car. You know, he's, he works hard
24:40
and produces results and, and, and does a good job.
24:43
And so there's so much more to it.
24:45
Yes, it's, it's certainly much more than just the last name
24:48
and, and, and he's doing that and I'm extremely proud of him.
24:54
So I, I love being able to this weekend, Dover, I'm, I'm going
24:59
there and I'm going to stay and, and watch him race on Sundays.
25:02
I do that about 50% of the time and I love it.
25:06
I love sitting there and being a dad and, you know, having him
25:09
come to me and ask me questions if he wants to, you don't have
25:13
to, but, but he still does. He still comes to me and asks me
25:17
stuff and, and I enjoy helping in any way I can and ultimately
25:21
want to want to see him succeed. He's he's, he's done good.
25:25
I think you know that him and his team are, are, are doing
25:28
well. And you know, I'm I'm excited to
25:31
see him in Victory Lane and get that first Cup win for the
25:34
Gilliland family. Yeah, I can't wait to see that.
25:38
And I bet that's not too far away with way he's doing that.
25:41
David, is it? Is it right now there?
25:43
There was a time when we were talking to, we had great
25:45
conversation with Maury Gallagher years ago and I asked
25:48
him, I said, you know, the rumors we've heard about the
25:51
Truck Series potentially going away because of the business
25:54
model. Was that exaggerated?
25:56
Was it true? And he said no way.
25:58
There was a lot of that. There was a lot of talk and
26:00
there was sometimes when it looked as if the Truck Series
26:03
wasn't going to survive. But I got to say kudos to NASCAR
26:07
and I know part of it was probably the Elmore engines, but
26:10
but as a as a group together to have this Truck Series survive
26:14
and thrive right now the way it is.
26:17
Was there a time when when you were concerned about the series
26:21
or that it might not thrive the way it's doing today?
26:24
And and do you consider where the business model is right now
26:28
to be a good spot for NASCAR? It's getting better, it's
26:33
getting better. It's tough, you know, which any
26:37
form of racing is tough and you, you, you know, no one can really
26:40
do it for an extended period of time without great partners,
26:44
right. And we have great partners that
26:45
believe in US and, and kind of what we're doing.
26:48
And but yeah, it's kind of what led me into the Truck Series
26:53
personally is, you know, we were running ARCA and they had we had
26:57
Ilmore engines and, and you could run the same Ilmore engine
27:00
in the in the truck. And so we went and met with red
27:06
horse and about buying their stuff and I went over there to
27:09
buy one truck and ended up buying the buying the team and
27:15
and that's kind of the way it all started.
27:16
But what gave me the confidence to do it was the motor side of
27:20
it, right? I think, I think Fillmore motor
27:22
side brought that side and and the cost of that not only down a
27:28
bunch, but also made it felt felt like I could kind of take
27:36
that out of my mind and then have a a fair shot on the motor
27:39
side. You know, there was some
27:41
manufacturers that I felt like had a clear advantage in the
27:44
built motor stuff and, and, and there was some motor programs
27:48
that not everybody could even go there and and buy and and and
27:52
and lease and and use. And so, you know, that's, that's
27:56
kind of difficult, but the owe more program overall has been a
27:59
very, very good step for the series and and for the teams on
28:06
the ownership side as well. So that was my main boost of
28:09
confidence to take that next step.
28:10
But we've been involved in the Truck Series for a long time.
28:13
My dad was one of the first ones to to run a truck for Jimmy
28:17
Smith out in California. That was my first job in racing
28:21
actually was working ultra wheels for Jimmy Smith when my
28:25
dad and and Mike Bliss were running in the Truck Series.
28:28
And so I've always had a passion for it.
28:31
It's unique. I've always drove a I've drove a
28:33
pickup truck for probably my whole life.
28:36
And so I like the truck stuff. It's enough different.
28:40
They're fun to drive for sure. Probably one of the funnest
28:43
vehicles personally that I've ever driven.
28:46
You have a lot of downforce and, and they're just a lot of fun
28:48
and they put and they put on a good show.
28:50
They, you know, you talk to a lot of race fans that they'll
28:53
watch races and they, they truly enjoy watching the races.
28:57
And so, you know, we just got to continue to work with NASCAR to,
29:00
to grow the series. I think from a competition
29:03
standpoint, it's, it's in a really good spot.
29:06
A lot of fast trucks each and every week that, that have a
29:09
shot at winning And, and you know, obviously that makes it
29:12
fun to watch, but you know, got to, still got to increase it.
29:16
It's still, it's still a tough business model to, to make work.
29:20
It's, it's certainly not easy. And, and even after you have
29:23
years like, like we had last year, it's still, it's still is
29:28
a little bit tough at times. So obviously we're passionate
29:31
about it. We're working closely with
29:33
NASCAR to continue to, to grow the series.
29:35
And you know, the better show we can put on and then the more we
29:39
can grow it, it it helps everybody, you know, ourselves
29:42
and NASCAR included. Well, David, you guys are
29:45
proving two things. First of all, hard work can pay
29:48
off and also nice guys can finish first.
29:52
I'm real proud to call you a friend.
29:54
Glad we've known each other for so many years.
29:56
I'm just really happy for your success man and hope there's
29:59
much more coming your way. And we really appreciate you
30:02
joining us this afternoon. It's my pleasure.
30:05
It's we've been talking about this for a little bit and so I'm
30:08
excited. This is my first podcast to be
30:10
able to do with you guys and and I'm proud to be able to do it
30:12
with you and, and call you my friend.
30:14
Like you said, it's there's a lot of comfort in and when
30:17
you're doing this every week to to see familiar friendly faces
30:20
like yourself at the racetrack and you know, your smile and
30:24
then everything else, it just because you're going to have bad
30:27
days at the racetrack. But but people like you make
30:29
them better. And we appreciate you and I
30:30
appreciate you reaching out and having me on the show.
30:33
It's it's an honor. Awesome, David.
30:35
Thank you very much. Best of luck to Todd and we will
30:37
see you at a racetrack soon. Perfect.
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