Saturday’s Busch series race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, the USG Durock 300, will be bigger than most on that tour because of the presence of one driver.
David Gilliland, of Riverside, Calif., pulled what has been called the biggest upset in the history of the series when, out of nowhere, on a shoestring budget, the 30-year-old won the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway on June 17.
In an era of teenage prodigies riding well-charted careers and strong financing to the top, Gilliland is an old-fashioned success story of pure talent making its own breaks.
Gilliland has developed a cult following the last few weeks, and it’s pretty impressive, including Busch and even Nextel Cup drivers themselves.
Carl Edwards called the victory “the biggest story of the year” in NASCAR.
When Gilliland got a one-off deal to run the Cup road race June 24 at Sonoma, Calif., (he finished 32nd in a patchwork ride against the big boys), “Jimmie Johnson came up and talked to me,” he said, and Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch greeted him warmly.
Can Gilliland make it back-to-back victories on his Cinderella ride?
Put it this way: he’s bringing exactly the same car–which he said he knew was perfect after only two laps of practice at Kentucky–to a very similar track, a 1.5-mile oval.
Pit stops
Matt Kenseth tops the list of drivers overdue for a Cup victory at the Joliet track in Sunday’s USG Sheetrock 400. Last year he dominated the race all afternoon except the waning laps, when he lost to best bud Dale Earnhardt Jr. on pit strategy. . . . Kenseth goes into Sunday’s race only eight points behind leader Jimmie Johnson in the Cup standings. But Johnson has a history of high finishes at Chicagoland–he has wound up in the top five in all four of his previous starts there. . . . Defending race champion Earnhardt sorely needed the victory last year to get his chin up in his worst Cup season ever. A win this time would keep him climbing toward the top of the standings–he’s currently third in points. A year ago he was 16th and destined to miss the Chase for the Championship. . . .
Sunday’s race may be a big indicator of whether Jeff Gordon is really back in form. He won at Sonoma two weeks ago, then ran strong at Daytona before getting caught up in someone else’s wreck and dropping to 12th in points. But Gordon ran strong at Michigan three weeks ago before winding up eighth in the rainout shuffle. That’s an indicator he will be strong on the other intermediate-size tracks, such as Chicagoland.
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