Texas Motor Speedway Competition Notes
TEAM AND RACE NOTES:
Front Row Motorsports returns to the Lone Star State to take on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.
Todd Gilliland and Michael McDowell look to improve on their 13th and 21st-place finishes, respectivley, at Martinsville Speedway last weekend. This will only be Gilliland's third Cup Series start at TMS, but not without experience. He does have 3 top-10s and a pole in seven CRAFTSMAN Truck Series starts. For McDowell, in 25 career Cup Series starts at TMS, he has three top-15s in the last five races.
McDowell is back in the Love's Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse, featuring their truck care partner, Fleetguard. A global leading filtration brand within the Atmus Filtration Technologies portfolio, Fleetguard offers a full suite of filtration products for nearly all makes of vehicles and equipment across the truck, bus, agriculture, construction, mining, marine and power generation vehicle, and equipment markets. Gilliland will feature the Long John Silver's brand on the No. 38, making it the third-straight weekend for Front Row Motorsports.
For Layne Riggs, this will be his second ever start at TMS; his first was with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series last year, where he started 38th and finished 19th-place. Infinity Communications is back on the No. 38 for the second-consecutive week after being the primary sponsor for last weekend's event in Martinsville, where Riggs earned a 15th place finish.
The weekend kicks off Friday, April 12th with Truck Series practice and qualifying at 4:00 p.m. ET followed by the 250-mile race, Friday evening at 8:30 p.m. ET, broadcasted live on FS1. The Cup Series will have practice and qualifying on Saturday, April 13th beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET. The AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway will take place Sunday, April 14th at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FS1. Fans can also listen in on the weekend action live from Sirius XM and the Performance Racing Network.
CUP SERIES COMPETITION NOTES:
No. 34 Loves Travel Stops / Fleetguard Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
DRIVER MICHAEL MCDOWELL:
"We need to keep building momentum on our season and keep proving that we can be up front and contend for race wins. We’ve had some good runs in the past at Texas. We're still showing top-10 and top-five speed and feel like we can be a top-10 threat at each mile-and-a-half track."
CREW CHIEF TRAVIS PETERSON:
"We have had good speed to start this season, we just need to execute better. Texas is a really fast track and one we ran at last fall, so hopefully we can show speed again and put together a solid weekend."
No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:
"I don't have a lot of Cup experience at Texas, but I have some experience in the trucks there. We know that it’s been tough to pass on. I think eventually throughout the day the track takes some rubber and it gets better, but we need to really think about strategy. Martinsville gave us some much needed momentum, we just need to build off of it and bring a fast race car that I can execute with. I'm looking forward to a solid weekend."
CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY:
"Yeah, like Todd said, Martinsville left him and the team in a good spot to build off of. I think we have a good chance of bringing home another top-15 or even a top-10, we just have to give Todd (Gilliland) a race car he can execute with."
TRUCK SERIES COMPETITION NOTES:
No. 38 Infinity Communications Ford F-150:
DRIVER LAYNE RIGGS:
"I feel like our luck is about to turn around. We made some mistakes in Martinsville that kept us out of the top-5, but that's in the past, we brought home our Infinity Communications Group Ford F-150 in one piece. I'm confident in going to Texas this weekend, it's one of the few half-miles I have experience at, and I know Dylan (Cappello) and the team will bring me a fast truck."
CREW CHIEF DYLAN CAPPELLO:
"Martinsville definitely feels like a missed opportunity, but we came out of there with a solid 15th-place finish. Texas is a track that Layne (Riggs) has some experience at, it just comes down to showing up and executing, as well as minimizing mistakes."