LINCOLN, Ala. — With just 10 laps to go in Sunday’s (Oct. 19) YellaWood 500, a push down the Talladega Superspeedway backstretch from Kyle Larson propelled Todd Gilliland back into the lead. He then pulled ahead of Front Row Motorsports teammate Zane Smith on the inside, who had also found his way to the front.
That was the sixth time Gilliland led the pack, totaling 11 laps led on the day. Gilliland couldn’t hold on to win the race, but he got back to the front on the final restart and made a last-lap move to snatch second place, scoring a new career-best finish.
So close, yet so far away for a driver who was within sight of his first career Cup victory.
“I honestly don’t even know what else I could have done,” Gilliland said about the moment he lost the lead with eight laps left.
“The track got pretty wide there at the end when I was on the inside lane of two wide. Then that third lane came flying around.”
It was Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher who led the charge on the outside. Meanwhile, Gilliland and Smith both sagged backwards.
“When I got down in front of the No. 38, I felt like I was in a really good spot,” Gilliland added. “It just didn’t work out. For whatever reason, (Zane) couldn’t stay connected to me and then (push) forward.”
The outside lane had the momentum, clearing the first two cars. The two Hendrick Motorsports teammates in the middle held station, while Gilliland and Smith wound up fourth and fifth on the bottom lane.
“At that time the bottom was just fading in general,” Gilliland continued. “It wasn’t really my first choice. I was trying to get to the middle and then [Larson] kind of went around me, and then I was kind of stuck on the bottom.”
Gilliland slid to 11th, stuck in the middle, before Buscher spun sideways down the backstretch with two laps to go. Gilliland lined up as the fifth car on the outside for the overtime restart.
The path back to the front was helped when Larson ran out of fuel, checking up the inside line. A huge push from Cole Custer in the tri-oval propelled Gilliland to the outside, and he passed Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs right at the finish line, beating them by less than three thousandths of a second.
CHASE BRISCOE IS A @TALLADEGA WINNER! 🏁 pic.twitter.com/pwfiMdP9w1
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 19, 2025
“We were really close. I thought we had a car capable of winning,” Gilliland shared on Front Row’s social media afterwards. “Definitely a little bit heartbreaking.”
P2 TODD @LovesTravelStop | @ToddGilliland_ pic.twitter.com/kkRtfqG4yZ
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) October 19, 2025
Gilliland didn’t have enough for Briscoe there at the end, but he matched his father’s career-best finish, which came in runner-up fashion at Sonoma Raceway in 2008 as well as at Talladega in the spring of 2013. That’s where he pushed teammate David Ragan to FRM’s first Cup win and a 1-2 finish.
The runner-up result for Todd is his first top five of the season. It’s also the first time he finished inside the top five since running fourth as a rookie at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 2022.
After a rough season for FRM, with their involvement in the NASCAR lawsuit combined with zero cars making the playoffs, the hope is Gilliland and Smith’s strong performances can build important momentum for 2026. Just a few more tweaks will give them a chance to finish one spot better at Talladega next spring.
“These races are so dynamic and change so much,” Gilliland said about his Talladega near-win. “We’ll keep working on it.”
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!