Todd Gilliland Drives to Sixth in NASCAR Overtime at Indy

Originally posted on Racing America on SI
By Joseph Srigley | Last updated Jul 28, 2025 11:26 AM ET

Photo: Rusty Jones, NKP

After a strong finish in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Todd Gilliland now has an average finish of 6.0 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – finishing sixth in back-to-back seasons at the iconic 2.5-mile racetrack in Speedway, Indiana.

Gilliland and his crew chief Chris Lawson played the strategy game perfectly in the final stage of Sunday’s crown jewel event, as the No. 34 Ford Mustang was one of about five teams that elected to push their final pit stop later into the run.

While this placed the Gener8tor-sponsored machine further down the running end, the move ended up being a net positive for Gilliland as a plethora of late-race cautions created chaos on-track and allowed the Front Row Motorsports driver to pick off positions through multiple restarts.

The Sherrills Ford, North Carolina-native was lined up on the eighth row for the first of two NASCAR Overtime restarts to end the Brickyard 400, and after a wreck for his teammate Zane Smith the driver of the No. 34 was already up to 11th.

Total team effort by the 34 team. pic.twitter.com/ii4zUfy1Pt
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) July 27, 2025

In the chaos of the race’s final restart, between drivers sliding up the racetrack and some vehicles inside the top-five running out of fuel, Gilliland found himself in sixth when the checkered flag was displayed.

“It’s crazy to finish sixth here last year and this year, it’s chaotic for sure,” Gilliland said. “There’s a lot of stuff that went into that one. Obviously, we missed a lot of the wrecks at the end. I felt like we had a plan to put ourselves in a good spot and advance through the field in the end, and that’s all you can do. We still started off the race really, really bad, but just our car had a lot of speed when we needed it, so I’m happy for that and for our Front Row guys.”

It's a much-needed good break for Gilliland and the Front Row Motorsports team, who have experienced their fair share of misfortune in the NASCAR Cup Series this Summer. The finish marks the first top-10 for Gilliland since Martinsville, and even the first top-15 for the No. 34 team since Kansas Speedway in May.

Gilliland, who has garnered a reputation throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career of picking up solid top-20 finishes for his Front Row Motorsports team, will look to take this momentum and continue it at Iowa Speedway, a racetrack he finished 12th at last season.

This article first appeared on Racing America on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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