TALLADEGA, Ala. – Sometimes it takes a little bit of momentum to unlock success in the Cup Series, and that’s what Todd Gilliland has found entering Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Dubbed the “Toddfather” over recent years, Gilliland is still going through growing pains in his fifth full-time season at Front Row Motorsports.
DNFs at Daytona and EchoPark Speedway to start 2026 were the exact opposite of what the 25-year-old driver needed to be within the mix of possibly contending for a position in The Chase, but a recent top 10 at Bristol and a 17th-place run last Sunday at Kansas could spark a big swing for the No. 34 Ford team.
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“It is fun,” Gilliland said. “Man, I definitely wish that we could start off a little bit more competitively. A lot of that starts with qualifying better. It really sets yourself up for the first stage or so. It is super nice to see some execution after that from us. I think Bristol, it was awesome to see as soon as the groove moved up to the top, we were really fast and executed flawlessly from there.”
Gilliland hasn’t started better than 17th (Circuit of The Americas) this season, and sitting 23rd in points doesn’t help his situation when it comes to maximizing Saturday practice and qualifying sessions on a weekly basis.
With no practice taking place on superspeedways and qualifying canceled for Sunday’s 188-lapper, the whole 40-car Cup field will start on an even playing field, and Talladega is arguably Gilliland’s best track. According to NASCAR Insights, he owns the second-best average finish in the Gen 7 era at Talladega (13.13) and returns to the 2.66-mile behemoth where he finished runner-up in the fall.
“A lot of it is a little bit of luck,” Gilliland said. “But also here, I feel like there’s just so much more room that you can really be looking ahead and get yourself out of a little bit of trouble if you see something happening, but I’d still say 95% of it still is being in the right place at the right time.
“I feel like last year in the fall was my best chance at getting a win at one of these places. Just how the last stage played out, we had good track position. Caution came out and we were on the front row for that last run where a lot of these times at these races, we’ve seen just the front two rows just kind of go back and forth. So I feel like it was a great spot. Ended up being in the third lane and just a much different race than what we’ve seen. Overall, I feel like we executed that well. So I feel like we’re trying to build off that and put ourselves in the same position this year.”
Like many, when it comes to managing the updated stage lengths that include a 98-lap opening segment, Gilliland said the No. 34 team is still on the fence about what’s going to be the best course of action Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just going to be interesting to see kind of what these guys come up with, and what your teammates want to do — what your manufacturer guys want to do,” Gilliland said. “I think you can see just manufacturers split in general, of what they are going to do and stick to it. We’ve seen that with, I think, Toyotas here in the past were going to short pit it and they were making good time, but, obviously, wrecked. That’s kind of the risk of doing that as well, but it’ll be super interesting to see for sure.”
Slowly but surely, Gilliland is crawling out of the hole that kicked off an important 2026 campaign, and with Front Row and his success on superspeedways, Sunday could be a special one for the group.
“All you can do is keep fighting, and these races are long enough that if you find some speed, you can usually get yourself out of a little bit of trouble,” Gilliland said. “I’m really happy with my road-crew guys, my crew chief, all those guys. I feel like we’re all closer than ever in our second year together and all that. So definitely feel good, and I love the guys I got behind me.”