Todd Gilliland Rebounds From Tough Stretch with Martinsville Top-10

Originally posted on Racing America on SI
By Joseph Srigley | Last updated Mar 31, 2025 3:13 PM ET

Photo Credit: Danny Hansen, NKP for Ford Performance

Todd Gilliland returned to his typical form in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville, recording a top-10 result in his No. 34 Colortech Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Front Row Motorsports.

The strong result, which matched a 10th-place finish at Circuit of The Americas as his best showing throughout the opening seven races of the year, comes on the heels of two forgettable weekends in a row.

Whether it had been simply from a lack of raw pace in his Front Row Motorsports machine, or getting involved in a mid-race incident, finishes of 29th and 30th in back-to-back weekends had knocked the Sherrills Ford, North Carolina-native from 17th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings to 26th, in a matter of just two weeks.

“It’s nice to get on the right track after the last couple of weeks we’ve had,” said Gilliland. “I wrecked our car at [Las Vegas] and finished 30th, and then last week we ran 30th pretty much all day, so I’m just super proud of my guys.”

for P10 pic.twitter.com/ddL6mRo03I
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) March 30, 2025

Martinsville, though, has always been a strong point for the 24-year-old driver, who captured his first victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the racetrack in 2019, and has previously scored a top-10 in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“We knew this was gonna be a good one and I feel confident when we come to Martinsville in myself, so we did a good job of executing all week,” added Gilliland. “My pit crew did a really good job because they kept us in the game all day. It was a full team effort.”

Despite starting in the middle of the hornet’s nest on Sunday, Gilliland managed to keep his nose clean throughout the race, something that many in the field weren’t capable of during the Cook Out 400 on Sunday.

Staying out of trouble and on the lead-lap allowed Gilliland to cycle into the top-half of the field when the final stage got started, and over the final half of the event, kept adjusting his Colortech-sponsored machine to get closer and closer to the front of the pack.

Just a scratch. pic.twitter.com/NlnrHyoZ33
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) March 30, 2025

“I felt like my team did a really good job. We didn’t make any mistakes all day and capitalized on others mistakes and just kind of chipped away at it and made our way forward,” said Gilliland. “We struggled with our balance a little but and just overall grip, and then that last run my guys did a really good job getting our car a lot better and I was able to pick off one or two guys on all those restarts, and then kind of settle in there to ninth.”

“It was tougher to pass once you started getting to go, but I was happy with it. We managed our stuff well and managed our whole race well.”

With his top-10 result on Sunday, Martinsville Speedway is now the only non-superspeedway oval on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit where Gilliland has scored multiple top-10 finishes. Next for Gilliland and the No. 34 team is a trip to another strong racetrack, where the team will look to secure their third top-10 of the season.