Top Dog: Todd Gilliland
It had been a quiet start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for Front Row Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland. The pilot of the No. 34 Ford came into Sunday’s (April 12) race at Bristol Motor Speedway 28th in the driver standings with only one top-20 finish on the season, a 12th at Phoenix Raceway.
Gilliland headed to Bristol with a career-best finish of 16th that he got back at the 2023 night race, and he had four straight finishes there outside the top 20. Front Row Motorsports as a whole has shown flashes of speed this season, especially from the No. 38 car driven by Zane Smith, so Gilliland came into the weekend hoping to put together a strong run.
The Climb To The Top
Gilliland had a tough time in qualifying on Saturday afternoon (April 11) as he posted a lap that was the third-slowest of the entire field. He rolled off the grid from the 35th starting spot, already at a disadvantage. Because of Bristol’s size, he was in danger of being put a lap down right from the drop of the green flag.
In stage one, Gilliland did find himself one lap down but was able to get back on the lead lap after taking the wave around under caution. He finished the first stage on the lead lap but back in 31st.
In the second stage, Gilliland was riding around in the middle of the pack when he was collected in a pileup that included Shane van Gisbergen, John Hunter Nemechek and Alex Bowman. Gilliland tried to slow down as best as he could but scraped the wall and got nose damage after getting into the back of Bowman’s car. After the incident, Gilliland began to move up the running order and ended stage two in 14th.
In the final stage, Gilliland remained in the top 15, and when a caution came out with around 120 laps to go, crew chief Chris Lawson made the call to take two tires on pit road. The strategy put the No. 34 car in fourth on the ensuing restart, and Gilliland was able to hold his track position for a long stint of the next run before fading a bit.
When the caution came back out with 22 to go, Gilliland pitted and came off pit road third, restarting in eighth since five drivers stayed out. After a short run, another caution came out with under five laps left, and in the lone overtime attempt, Gilliland battled in the top 10 to nab a sixth-place finish.
It was the No. 34 team’s best finish of the season, which moved Gilliland up two spots to 26th in the Cup Series driver standings
Looking Ahead
Gilliland and his FRM team will look to put together another strong result next Sunday (April 19) at Kansas Speedway. He has an average finish of 20.3 at the track and finished 12th in both races there last season.
Top Dogs of the Lower Series
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: It has been a solid first season in the NOAPS for Rajah Caruth, but it has been hectic as he has spent time behind the wheel of both the No. 88 JR Motorsports car and the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing car.
At Bristol, Caruth piloted the No. 32 Chevrolet while Kyle Larson made a start in the No. 88, and the weekend got off to a difficult start as Caruth did not post a qualifying lap due to a wheel hub issue. He would have to come from the back of the pack as one of the four drivers eligible for the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 prize.
Caruth moved up from 38th to 22nd by the end of the first stage, and he finished in the 19th in the second stage. At the end of the night, Caruth battled from a dead- last starting spot to a top-15 finish, taking the checkered flag in 14th.
Caruth came into the race 42 points ahead of The Chase cut line, 10th in the NOAPS driver standings. He was able to maintain that margin, sitting 36 points above the cut line, but dropping down to 11th in points.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Coming into the weekend, Dawson Sutton had no top-10 finishes on the season and sat 25th in the Truck Series driver standings. His No. 26 Rackley W.A.R. team brought the Tennessee Volunteer colors to “The Last Great Coliseum” to try and change their fortune, but things got off to a rough start.
Sutton’s truck broke a power steering line during practice, so he did not post a qualifying lap and had to start Friday night’s (April 10) event in 34th. However, Sutton avoided the carnage and rallied his way up to a seventh-place finish. This result bumped Sutton up six spots in the driver standings to 19th as the Truck Series heads into a two-week break before their next race on May 1 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Small Team Scheme of the Week
For the first time this season, Rick Ware Racing came to the track with Costa Oil as the primary sponsor, and they got to show off a black and gold look on their No. 51 Chevrolet.
The last time Costa Oil sponsored Ware was at Iowa Speedway last season, where they had a white-colored hood. But this time, the entire car was black and gold, which looked better as the whole car matched.
Ware finished the race in 31st, five laps down.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.