David Gilliland

Birthday: April 1, 1976
Hometown: Riverside, Calif.

David Gilliland is the son of former Cup driver Butch Gilliland, and in 1996 David began working on his father's Winston West Series team. By 1999, Gilliland won the track championship at Perris Speedway and the following year ran a limited season in the Winston West Series.

In 2003, Gilliland won five races in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Series and finished the season sixth in points, with five top-five finishes and eight top-10s.

In 2004, Gilliland announced plans to run the full schedule in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division Southwest Series and all non-conflicting NASCAR Grand National Division West Series races. He won his first NASCAR Grand National Division West Series race at Mesa Marin Raceway, and was tabbed the series' rookie of the year. He also had two victories in NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division Southwest Series.

Gilliland made his first attempt at a major NASCAR race in 2003, at the Las Vegas 350 in the Craftsman Truck Series, but failed to qualify. However, he made his Busch Series debut at Phoenix after qualifying 28th; he finished 43rd because of an early crash. Gilliland made the other Phoenix race later in the year, but had the same result; 43rd after ignition troubles.

Gilliland began running the No. 84 Clay Andrews Chevy part-time in 2006 and drew praise from many veterans. He struggled to finish races, earning a best finish of 29th in his first four starts. Then came his fifth race -- June 17 at Kentucky Speedway. Gilliland scored his first career Busch Series win, becoming the first driver of 2006 to win a Busch race who was not also running a full-time Nextel Cup schedule.

Gilliland made his first attempt to make a Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. He qualified 31st and finished 32nd.

In August 2006, Gilliland replaced Elliott Sadler as the driver of Robert Yates Racing's No. 38 Ford in the Cup Series.