Smith Clinches Regular Season Truck Championship
McDowell Scores Eighth Top-10
Gilliland Shows Off in Throwback Colors
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) made its one and only stop of the season this past weekend at the Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The crowd was packed and watched FRM make history.
On Saturday, Zane Smith and the No. 38 Fr8Auctions.com #BraveLikeWyatt team won FRM's first championship. The team finished 13th in Saturday's race- good enough to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season title. Smith is ranked first heading into the Playoffs this weekend.
Fr8Auctions.com helped make FRM history again on Sunday. They supported Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Ford Mustang team to a sixth-place finish and a move to 20th in the championship. McDowell now has the most top-10 results for a FRM Cup entry in a season.
Todd Gilliland and the No. 38 A&W Restaurant team finished 25th in Sunday's race. Gilliland was celebrating National Root Beer Float day on August 6 at A&W Restaurants.
For Smith and the No. 38 Fr8Auctions.com #BraveLikeWyatt team, it was back to work after a week off.
The team brought a brand new truck to the track to prepare for the upcoming championship battle. Although Smith finished in the top-10 in both Stage One and Two, the team worked through a stuck throttle all afternoon. The team finished 13th to secure the title of regular season champions and the top seed in the Playoffs. Smith knows the team can work through the new truck and also fight for the championship.
“We had that circled at the very beginning of the year," said Smith. "We wanted to win the regular season. Felt good to do that. We didn't have the day we wanted on Saturday, but we can work on this new truck and we still have a whole great fleet to use for the Playoffs. Feels good to have the points we do and have the lead going into the Playoffs. There is another trophy to go get."
Todd Gilliland looked forward to the race at the Pocono Raceway. He raced with similar A&W Restaurants colors to his father, David, back in 2014. Gilliland and the team used strategy to race inside the top-10 late in the race, but had to pit late for fuel. The team was hoping to catch a caution, but it never came. Gilliland finished 25th.
"I wanted to finish better," said Gilliland. "We proved that we had good speed late in the race, even on older tires. We had to try and gamble on catching a caution to get track position. It didn't come, but it was good racing in the top-15 and top-10 for a little bit.
"We want to get back to top-20 finishes. We have some upcoming races where we can take advantage of having good runs on a road course or even at Daytona. I want to see those results for us."
A&W is celebrating National Root Beer Float Day all month long. Fans can enjoy a free Root Beer Float now through August 6 by joining the A&W Mug Club at RootBeerFloatDay.com.
McDowell and the No. 34 Fr8Auctions.com team continued their career best season on Sunday.
McDowell started 25th, but through great pit stops, keeping the car clean, and advancing on nearly every restart the team advanced into the top-15 through the first two stages of the race.
In the final stage, the Fr8Aucitons.com #BraveLikeWyatt team made exactly the right changes, while getting on the same pit sequence as the leaders, and marched up the finishing order in the final 30 laps. Restarting 10th on the final restart, McDowell quickly gained three spots. He lost one spot to Kyle Larson to cross the line eighth, but gained two spots after the disqualification of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch who finished first and second.
"It was a good day in our Fr8Auctions.com #BraveLikeWyatt Ford Mustang," said McDowell. "I had a couple of good restarts that got us track position, but then I had one really bad one where we got hit in the left rear and about spun out. That hurt our track position.
"My guys called a great race, and we tried some different strategies to try to get track position. We stayed out on old tires but I felt like if I got a good restart, and got into the top-10, I could hold on. We restarted 16th with no tires and drove up to eighth so I am really proud of that finish.
"It is still not the day we wanted everyone at Fr8Auctions.com. You don't want to be eighth (at the time), you want to win the race, but we are doing a great job. I feel like we are getting closer."
FRM now prepares for racing in Indianapolis this upcoming weekend.
ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series and the 2021 Daytona 500 champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team– from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports. -30- TEAM CONTACTS: Michael McDowell John Dragonetti E-mail: jdragonetti@frontrowmotorsports.com Mobile: 704-578-9937 Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith Chris Murdock Mobile: 740-861-4534 E-Mail: cmurdock@frontrowmotorsports.com