NASCAR CUP SERIES: BRICKYARD 400

July 26, 2026

Todd Gilliland

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Todd Gilliland who has won our in-season challenge. He has won $1 million.

Todd, talk to us about today.

TODD GILLILAND: It was a tough day for us, to be honest with you, the team as a whole. Yeah, I thought that was kind of our whole MO through this whole thing, we were barely scraping by, even today, right? It took a bit of bad luck clearly from the 12.

My heart was pounding those last 25 laps. It was me, the 16 and the 12. Yeah, still seemed like one slipup and I was going to be right in front of the 12 or right behind him even coming down to the very end.

Yeah, I still feel like we kind of earned it coming down the stretch. Yeah, I think I kind of talked about it before, but the biggest thing for me that was really cool through this whole process was seeing how my team really elevated themselves, really grabbed another gear.

They worked super, super hard, long hours for this week, just really ramped up throughout this whole in-season challenge. I think it's cool. They unlocked another level within themselves.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What was your initial reaction when you heard that Ryan Blaney was caught up in a wreck later in the race?

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, well, man, that was kind of right when we finally were able to stay with the pack. Even at the beginning we weren't very good. Honestly weren't good enough to be up there battling on the restarts.

I was nose to tail with five other cars in front of me. I just see a little bit of yellow out of the right side of my eye. I was like, man, even if he just spins here, he's going to be back in the pack. Obviously it's pretty tough to pass once you get settled in. Then he hit the nose. I was like, All right, maybe that will slow him down a little bit. Maybe it did a little bit, but he was just as fast as us.

It's one of those things where you never cheer against someone. After it's over with, you're like, All right, that definitely helped us out. Now we definitely need to take advantage of it.

Q. Have you thought about how you're going to use this money at all yet?

TODD GILLILAND: I've not. I think the $1 million goes to the team. Yeah, I honestly don't know how much I'm going to get. I definitely believe it's going to be the biggest payday of my life so far.

Yeah, should be a lot of fun going into an off week. Definitely a great time to kind of unplug and get rejuvenated going forward.

Q. Ryan was up there for most of the end of the race. Did you reconcile within yourself we're going to need some kind of miracle finish?

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Even after qualifying, it was fairly evident we were going to need find some extreme speed in our car or we're going to need a little bit of misfortune from their team.

Yeah, I loved to talk a little smack this morning. I always go to pit practice, and we have a Penske pit crew, so they always practiced next to each other. So I was in the pit crew, and I was like, Man, this is your guys' to lose. All the pressure is on you. We're going to go out and see what we can do, see where we come out of this.

I'm glad none of them messed up. Kind of a racing deal seems like. That's racing, right? If it was just off speed might we as well only run five laps of these races. Over the course of 400 hundred miles, things can happen.

Q. Did you know the positioning at all? Were you getting an update on where things stood?

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, here with two spotters, it seemed like one word after another, as soon as my turn one main spotter would stop talking, my turn three spotter would just say, All right, clear by three, and they were picking up right after each other and continuing to talk, counting down the laps.

Yeah, I said it out there a little bit, but it just felt really good to have that feeling of racing into the closing laps with something meaningful, right? Even though we finished 24th, having those guys kind of breathing down my neck, this is a place that's very tough to pass, it's super important to hit my marks.

Yeah, didn't have any big mistakes there at the end. That felt really good just to close it out. He was right there, in my mirror the whole last 25 laps or so.

Q. To have something to race for, what is the incentive of this challenge? What benefits do you see for this program continuing?

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Realistically it's not going to be someone that is 23rd in points that makes a run through it. I think obviously we got super lucky along the way.

Yeah, I think, like I said, the biggest thing is seeing my team, everyone in the shop, pushing themselves to a new level. It's easy to kind of get very relaxed, go through the motions of we're a 23rd-place team. We don't want to be that forever. We're working super hard to get out of that.

We're racing against the best of the best every single week. That's the coolest thing. All of these guys are capable of so much. Hopefully I can do my job to the best of my ability and show them we can do that and close out the season strong.

Q. Feels like we've seen a different level of strategy and care about this in-season challenge over the last two years. When it comes to your team, at what point during these five weeks did you hone in and say this is something we want to work toward throughout every race?

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of progressively ramped up since the very beginning. When you're the 25th seed looking up at that mountain of we have to beat this guy or this guy, it seems like a very tall task.

Even for myself, I never really thought this was a realistic goal. When you get a little bit closer, you go past one round, two rounds, then you're in the final eight, final four, then the finale, it really ramps up a lot.

Yeah, it's cool. I think you kind of saw that with my team in the shop and everywhere. I honestly feel like they were more into it at the very beginning. They were like, C'mon, dude, we're in this thing.

I'm like, Yeah, there's still a long ways to go, though.

They definitely cared about it a ton from the very beginning.

Q. Is there a point in these last five weeks that maybe was so critical to the point where that was the reason why you were able to move on?

TODD GILLILAND: I mean, yeah, I definitely think just when the 12 was backwards, to be honest.

Man, yeah, I thought that last restart wasn't my best. I think it was one of those things where my mindset shifted of, like, all right, I have to be super aggressive, the 12 is behind us now, we just need to pick the bottom, not get in a bad spot.

In doing so, I definitely got in a bad spot, a few bad spots. Not my best restart for sure. Obviously I feel like I wish I could do that one over again to get a few spots better.

Yeah, overall I think our strategy and all that stuff for that final restart was what it needed to be to close out the deal.

Q. This is where you got your first top five, last year you got one of your best finishes of the season, now you won $1 million. Talk about why is this place so good to you.

TODD GILLILAND: Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I was able to test here before we came back to the oval, which I think kind of got my feet under me a little bit.

Then yeah, I don't know, I think things have always gone my way here. Even with the last two races here, finishing sixth the last two years, a lot of late-race restarts, picking the right lane, being in the right place, getting our car where it needed to be at the right time. We did that again today. I felt the most confident throughout the whole race towards the end of the race.

Yeah, wish we could start closer, qualify a little bit better. Yeah, overall I think this place is just fun, challenging. Yeah, I definitely think this is probably the intermediate I feel the most comfortable at.

THE MODERATOR: Todd, thanks for your time. Congratulations.

TODD GILLILAND: Thank you.