DOVER, Del. – Despite still being a relatively new face to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) DGR-CROSLEY owned by David Gilliland and entrepreneur Bo LeMastus has built a strong foundation that is only expected to get stronger as the heart of the season marches on.
In Friday’s JEGS 200 at Dover International Speedway, Gilliland will drive the No. 54 Frontline Enterprises | Crosley Brands Toyota Tundra and compete against his 17-year-old son Todd Gilliland who competes for Kyle Busch Motorsports. While the event will symbolize potentially one of the finest moments in each drivers’ perspective careers – the odds of them competing for the win against each other is just as equally symbolic.
“It’s exciting. It’s obviously super special. I’ve got into a lot of races in my career,” said David Gilliland. “I’ve looked forward to a lot of them and nothing’s been like this. This is our first-time racing against each other in a NASCAR series. It’s just super special to be able to race with your son.
“He’s really fast, so I was actually just getting ready to ask him a couple questions when we get out of here. It’s just a super special weekend. Like you said, we’re trying to build our DGR-Crosley team and to have some input from the driver’s seat always helps. This is one of my favorite race tracks, so special weekend.”
In practice Thursday, the younger Gilliland outpaced dad – but as the 200-lap race unravels late Friday afternoon, the elder Gilliland is expected to surge and contend for the team’s first victory of 2018.
Since acquiring the assets of the now-defunct Red Horse Racing, DGR-CROSLEY is no stranger to being at the front of the field, despite competing it’s only fifth race.
Co-team owner LeMastus made his Truck Series debut at Daytona and continued in the seat through the events the following week at Atlanta. In Las Vegas, versatile race car driver Justin Marks led practice and competitively competed for a top-10 finish before finishing 11th.
At Martinsville five weeks ago (the last time the trucks raced), NASCAR Next alumnus Kyle Benjamin showcased his ability when he qualified the truck fourth, led 74 laps before finishing second to John Hunter Nemechek.
In the first of a three-consecutive weekend stretch for Trucks, Gilliland now the chance to build on Benjamin’s superb run – while to continuing to showcase DGR-CROSLEY capabilities.
“Back in January we partnered up, David Gilliland Racing, with Bo LeMastus and it’s been really good,” added Gilliland. “We’ve grown really fast. Our last truck race we led a bunch with Kyle Benjamin and finished second, so the progress is there. It’s just maintaining that momentum and having trucks built, you know our schedule’s been very easy on the truck side up until this – so far this year the races have been spaced out and now we’ve got three in a row coming up.
“That’s been the most difficult part. You know trying to find people and just to build the team. We’ve tripled in size as far as employees in the last three months and so that’s probably been the most challenging part of the new partnership.”
And it’s not just the Trucks where DGR-CROSLEY continues to make a splash.
The Mooresville, N.C.-based team also competes in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. The team has won the first three K&N races with Todd Gilliland at New Smyrna and Bristol Motor Speedway, while newcomer Tyler Dippel scored his second win at Langley Speedway last weekend.
“We’ve got off running the K&N Series too. We’ve won all three of the K&N races so far this year,” sounded Gilliland. “We’ve grown really fast.”
Todd Gilliland will make his ARCA return at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on May 24, his first start since 2015 – but his debut for DGR-CROSLEY in the series recently acquired by NASCAR.
As for DGR-CROSLEY’s lineup for next weekend at Kansas Speedway in Trucks, LeMastus will return to the No. 54 seat for his Truck Series race of the year.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
