David Gilliland led Cup regulars J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin across the finish line Saturday at Kentucky. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Q&A: David Gilliland

This has been David Gilliland's week. He won this past week at Kentucky Speedway in the Busch Series race, and is going to be trying to make his first Nextel Cup start at Sonoma where he has some history.

Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Meijer 300 Results Pos. Driver Start Make 1. D. Gilliland 4 Chevy 2. J.J. Yeley 10 Chevy 3. D. Hamlin 1 Chevy 4. M. Wallace 17 Dodge 5. A. Lewis 32 Ford 6. K. Harvick 13 Chevy 7. G. Biffle 30 Ford 8. D. Reutimann 25 Dodge 9. P. Menard 8 Chevy 10. S. Leicht 28 Ford • Complete results, click here • Driver standings, click here Victory LaneDavid Gilliland celebrates after winning the Meijer 300 in Kentucky Final lapsDavid Gilliland tries to hold on to the lead down the stretch Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

In 2004, Gilliland won there in the NASCAR Southwest Series. He also won the 2005 Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale, Calif., which was his biggest victory to date prior to this past Saturday night of course.

Gilliland spoke to the media on Tuesday:

Q: David, three days later, are you still feeling pretty excited about what happened Saturday night at Kentucky?

Gilliland: Oh, yeah, this morning I woke up and asked myself if it was all true. It's been a dream come true for us. We've worked our whole lives for that and an opportunity like this. It's just really opened a lot of doors for us I think. It's just been great for our team. We've been running unsponsored and hopefully this will help bring some attention our way.

Q: You really held them off down the stretch there, and it was actually toward the latter stages of this race it was almost looking easy up there, but I know it wasn't easy.

Gilliland: Yeah, it's not easy. We build our own motors and do a lot of that stuff. Since we're a new team, running against those guys is never easy, but from the lap that we unloaded our racecar there at Kentucky, our car was really, really good from the first lap. We fine tuned it a little bit and it was just a perfect weekend. You know, the car was really good, and I adapted very well to the track, even though I've never even seen it before Friday. So we adapted very well and everything just went our way.

Q. This attempt to qualify for the Cup race this weekend, was that something that you had already planned on doing before your victory, and is this your first attempt to make a Nextel Cup race?

Gilliland: Yes, it is -- it is something that I've had planned prior. I've had it planned for probably about a month and a half now. We've been working on the car and we're looking forward to really going to Sonoma again. I ran pretty good there in some Southwest Tour stuff. We had a victory and I'm really looking forward to going back there. Yes, it is my first Nextel Cup attempt and hopefully, you know, with everything last weekend, we'll be able to go out there. We've got a lot of interviews lined up. It was really good. Everything kind of worked out really good and good timing to be there.

Q. If you could, address how Jerry Nadeau was able to help you with last week's win?

Credit: AP

BELIEVE THE HYPE Jerry Nadeau says this David Gilliland is the real deal.  Those in NASCAR might agree after he took his unsponsored, limited upstart team to Victory Lane at Kentucky on Saturday for one of the biggest upsets in Busch Series history.  •   Complete story, click here Who's David Gilliland? The 30-year-old West Coast racer left success behind to make an attempt at the big time.  •   Complete story, click here Holiday Inn RacingRookie David Gilliland holds off Cup regulars to capture his first NBS win Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

Gilliland: Jerry Nadeau has helped me a bunch. Clay Andrews, who I drive for, is my Busch car owner. He hired Jerry to be a coach and to go to a lot of these tracks that I've never been to. He's really helped me a lot to give me a lot of little pointers. I can't put enough emphasis on how important it is to have a guy like Jerry at a track. We go out and practice at a place like Kentucky, and I can go five laps, put my window down, reach out and ask him a question and have an answer in two minutes, because he's been there and done that. So it's really been great and I think, you know, he's part of our -- such rapid success with our team. It's been really great having a guy like that. He's got a lot of experience and he's really helped me a lot.

Q. Talk a little about your dad, Butch. People who haven't been around the sport or for long probably don't know a lot about him, but talk about him and the influence, his influence on you as far as your racing career goes.

Gilliland: He really helped me a lot when I was younger. I grew up around racing, so I thank him very much for that obviously and being around it every week from the first time as long as I can remember. I've always wanted to race and growing up around him racing he give me the ability to work on the cars and go to the track and kind of learn how things work. Then when I was 18, I split away and did my own thing. I started racing for somebody else and got my own deal going. But he's always there too -- he don't come to a lot of the races but he's a phone call away and always calls when we do something. He's always there to support us.

Q. He really captured what Southwest Racing really was; is there something to that mentality that you absorbed from watching him pretty much as an independent try to break into the big leagues of NASCAR?

Gilliland: Absolutely. He won the championship in 1997. I was his crew chief at that time. That was a big deal for us. The reason we got there was because of hard work and determination, and that is one thing that I got from him. And always -- he always told me: You know if you work hard enough, you can get anything you want with hard work. Our win on Saturday night was a true testament to that, I feel. Our team didn't win because we spent the most money and didn't win because we had the most horsepower, we didn't win because of our pit stops. We won because everybody on our team is 150 percent dedicated to what they do and our race team. It's good for NASCAR to show that hard work and a little guy can still come through and get it done.

BUSCH SERIE'S BIGGEST UPSET? Did David Gilliland pull the biggest upset in Busch Series history? Or was it a matter of hard work finally paying off? Most agree with Marty Smith that it was well-deserving.  •   Complete story, click here

Q. Your car, has it been through the wind tunnel a lot, sort of where did it come from and what have you done to it?

Gilliland: The car we raced out there, when we got started, we moved into our race shop here in North Carolina on Jan. 15 of this year and we bought four used cars, and this particular car we bought was from Michael Waltrip Racing. It has not been to the wind tunnel. We have a local guy here in North Carolina put a body on it for us and we've just kind of massaged on it and fine tuned the best we could on it.

It's pretty amazing, actually. Chevrolet called us today and told us we won there -- the race we won this weekend was their 300th Busch Series win. So big as it was for me to get my first win, it was big for Chevrolet to get their 300th win. They stepped up and they can help our team a little bit more and possibly give us some opportunity to go to the wind tunnel. So we're excited about doing that, and we think we will be able to make our program better with it. But as of, you know, prior to now, we have not been able to do that.

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Q. Can you talk about how you and Clay Andrews got together, what was that like, and stuff like that?

Gilliland: I had raced against them. He started with the Grand National West Team last year and they ran one race and they ran really good and they caught my attention. They actually qualified second and I qualified third, and I was pretty impressed with their operation and for them to just be able to come in and do this.

So at that time we were running the full series. Towards the end of the year I had heard that they let their driver go and I gave Clay a call and he never called me back. I just continued on racing at Marin in Bakersfield, Calif., and I won the final race there, the final October Classic and Clay was there in the stands. Well, he called me Sunday morning the day after and asked me to drive for him. And ever since then, we've had a really good relationship and he's given me a good opportunity here. I brought a lot of my guys to his team and together we've been able to accomplish quite a bit.

Q. Does the victory and everything surrounding it, does it change any of the Busch plans later in the year, or are you adding any races, anything like that?

Gilliland: We'd like to add races, but like I said, Clay Andrews has been doing this deal out of his pocket for seven months. And our original plan was to run 20 races and that's kind of what we're sticking to as of right now, unless we can get sponsorship, which you know hopefully will happen. We've got a lot of attention from this win, and it's been a pretty big deal, bigger than I ever imagined.

Q. Have you gotten any phone calls from any maybe Nextel Cup owners or anything like that yet?

Gilliland: Yeah, I have, actually. I've gotten some pretty good phone calls, pretty neat. You know, you race your whole life for an opportunity and to try and succeed in NASCAR racing. To see it all coming true before your eyes is a pretty amazing sight.

Q. You must have learned a lot with the Busch win. Do you believe the driver learning curve ever has an end point?

Gilliland: No, I don't. I think for me it don't anyway. Every time I race, I learn something. For instance, the week before, a month before, we went to Lowe's Motor Speedway and we missed the race. We missed the race, but we learned something and we took that to Kentucky and we won. Every time you race, you learn. And that's what I like about racing against the Nextel Cup guys in the Busch Series is that it pushes you to learn more and it's made me a better driver, and that's why I race, to be the best driver I can be. So racing against them guys and learning every week we race, that's what it's all about.