Coming off two top-25 finishes in their last mile-and-a-half race events, Charlotte and Kansas, David Gilliland and the No. 38 Long John Silver’s team hope to continue their strong runs this Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway. A track similar in size and shape, Texas has always been a favorite of Gilliland’s.
Under the direction of new crew chief Derrick Finley, the No. 38 Ford team has improved their performance at the faster, intermediate tracks. Gilliland has mentioned that Finley has prepared him some of his best cars to race at these style tracks this season.
Gilliland has a career-best finish of 15th at Texas.
David Gilliland on Texas:
“I’m pretty anxious to get to Texas. Derrick has really pumped in some new life to our intermediate cars and they have been pretty fun to race. We’re still working on getting more speed out of the cars, but it seems we’re just a lot further ahead right now. We just want to maximize what we can do each week, and I think we’re getting a lot closer at the intermediate tracks now.
“Derrick has been around the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for a long time. He understands the sport and how to prepare the cars. He also understands our organization as well as anyone. We’re not the smallest by any means, but we’re also not the biggest. We use all our resources to the best of our ability. And it’s Derrick who is helping us get the best results possible right now.
“I think we’re capable of a top-20 finish this weekend. I really like Texas. It has always been a favorite track of mine. I like the higher speeds and the banking. The confidence that we have now too, it makes it a lot more fun to go race. Hopefully we can have a good day on Sunday.”
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