In 2022, NASCAR Cup Series driver Todd Gilliland took on a role as a young rookie prospect in the Front Row Motorsports garage. Amid four straight full-time Cup Series seasons, Gilliland has amassed one top five and 13 top-10 results while driving for the Ford-powered team.
Entering 2025, he became the elder statesman of his two younger FRM teammates, Noah Gragson and Zane Smith, at only 25 years old. This year has brought him three top-10 finishes, with a best result of sixth in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All the while his race team, along with 23XI Racing, has been embroiled in a legal battle with NASCAR.
While he didn’t make the Cup Series playoffs in 2025, Gilliland is still trying to improve his race craft to get ready for 2026. Frontstretch caught up with Gilliland at Kansas Speedway to discuss how he has handled his 2025 season and his preparation for 2026.
To listen to the full interview, check out this week’s episode of the Bringing the Heat podcast with Trey Lyle.
Dalton Hopkins, Frontstretch: Where do you feel like you grade yourself in comparison to how you feel like you were at the beginning of the year?
Todd Gilliland: First off, compared to last year, I think we’ve had just more bad luck. Less speed probably is a fair statement, and just less consistency. Because the biggest thing last year, over the summer stretch, we had quite a bit of really consistent runs, kind of top 15 or top 20 like eight weeks in a row or something. Which, for us, is mediocre runs. And you say, ‘We want more,’ but that being our kind of baseline was really good last year.
But like I said, this year, it seemed like the beginning of the year we fired off really strong. We had, good runs at Daytona [International Speedway], [Circuit of the Americas], [EchoPark Speedway], all those places. And we were doing okay, but it seemed like once we got to May, June, we just kind of hit a slump. Got damage at Pocono [Raceway], got in an early wreck at Chicago, and it was like six weeks in a row where we just could not put anything together and had a lot of really bad finishes, which really buried us, and it’s just really hard to get momentum going back again. So, I don’t know. Obviously, it’s hard to put it on that, but I say it doesn’t help. Overall, we’re working on it and just kind of need more speed when we get to the racetrack.
Hopkins: You’ve become the elder statesman of the team already. Do Zane or Noah come to you for advice?
Gilliland: No, I wouldn’t say they necessarily come to me for advice, but I think just as a whole, we’re just really good at talking to each other just about everything, right? We talk about a lot of the non-racing stuff because we’re friends off the racetrack. And then at that point, stuff just comes up about racing, and we just kind of bounce ideas off each other just naturally how it comes up. So, I think that’s been super fun.
I definitely love our team dynamic this year as far as the drivers go and how good we get along. Obviously, going from Michael McDowell last year was a huge change, right? He has tons of experience and been doing it forever. He’s just in a different part of his life, right? He’s got family, is a little bit older than me. So, there’s definitely a big change, but like I said, I think both have their positives and negatives, but we’re definitely having a lot of fun this year.
Hopkins: On top of everything, there’s the lawsuit. We talk to drivers, and they all say, ‘We block that out. We don’t let that get to us.’ How are you able to do that?
Gilliland: Obviously, you read everything and see all the news articles, right? I mean, it’s social media nowadays. That’s the good and the bad, I guess, right? You see everything. I think for me, the biggest goal all year is just keep our team focused, right? I know there’s nothing that we can do about it. So, keep doing our jobs. Obviously, we’re here racing because that’s what we love to do. And we have a great opportunity ahead of us. So that’s just what I’ve been telling everyone all year. We’re going to obviously leave the rest to our owners and managers and all that stuff, right? It’s completely, completely out of our control. So, just do the best we can and make the most of every opportunity regardless.
Hopkins: How’s your golf game lately?
Gilliland: Dude, my golf game’s up and down, but man, I was just playing golf yesterday before we came up here to Kansas, and it was the last hole. It was a close match, and I was super nervous. Like my heart was pounding. I was like, ‘Dang, it’s crazy that I get so nervous over this. I think it’s just that I don’t have confidence in my golf game whatsoever. When we’re in racing, I’m a little bit more confident. So, yeah, it’s definitely fun. It definitely takes my mind off it, right? It’s one of those things where I’ve got to focus for four hours. I just don’t really look at my phone much while I’m playing golf, and it’s kind of nice just to relax and hang out a little bit.
Hopkins: Who were you competing against? Was it just friends or was it like an actual competition?
Gilliland: Yesterday I was with a couple guys. I was with Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and then a couple other guys. It was fun. It was a good group. I love playing golf with Jeff and Steve, and it makes me feel like I’m working a little bit, at least, if there’s any racing that comes up, but it’s mostly just golf and hanging out. But those guys are good. Especially with us traveling, right? With the schedules nowadays, with not a ton of practice. We usually have a lot of Friday afternoons open or Saturday afternoons. So, we try and get out on the road a little bit, but we played at home yesterday.
Hopkins: What makes you more nervous? Restarting in the top 10 with two laps to go or being one stroke away from beating Jeff Burton at a golf tournament?
Gilliland: It’s closer than you think, dude. I think it’s almost exactly the same, to be honest. It just gets the heart pumping. But that’s a good thing, and it’s all fun games, right?
Hopkins: Are you looking forward to the offseason?
Gilliland: Yeah man, it’s been a tough stretch. 27 races, I think? The longest in NASCAR history. So, I think everybody is, right? Because driving the car and getting home, like Mondays, I have pretty much just kind of recoup and get ready wherein my team and our truck drivers and everybody else, is working almost every day during the week, and then we go racing. Man, it’s more than a full-time job. I’m more excited for these guys to be able to take a break. I am still excited to just relax a little bit, take my mind off it. It’s still a grind if it’s just going back-to-back-to-back.
Hopkins: Got any special golf plans?
Gilliland: I don’t. I think that was my biggest mistake of my rookie year off-season. I just wanted to plan stuff, and then I feel like it flew by because I was busy non-stop, and I was just as tired when I got back to Daytona. My last couple years, I’ve just been trying to hang out and not do a single thing at all, and whatever comes up, comes up. That’s kind of my goal for this year as well.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT