NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – Driving for his family-owned David Gilliland Racing-Crosley team, NASCAR Next driver Todd Gilliland battled Harrison Burton during a brilliant eight-lap shootout which saw the two rising stars swap paint and the race lead before Gilliland escaped with his sixth career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory in the New Smyrna 175.
Gilliland the son of Cup driver David Gilliland and Burton, the son of former NASCAR driver and NBC Analyst Jeff Burton battled for the top spot throughout the 175-lap race, but the two young-guns saved the best for last.
After a late race caution for Matt Levin who received a punt from Gilliland, the field was stacked up setting the tone for the finish. With two laps remaining, Burton and Gilliland door-slammed in Turns 3 and 4.
Coming to the white flag, Burton maintained the lead, but Gilliland made a last lap attempt in Turns 3 and 4 and swiped the lead away coming to the checkered flag.
“I was laying it all on the table, I think we both were,” said Gilliland, 17, who has won the K&N West title the past two seasons.
“It was back-and-forth a lot and just being able to get him loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 and get a little bit of a run down the backstretch to get even with him in (Turns) 3 and 4, I knew we’d be OK at that point. It was all about timing, I guess.
“I’ll race anyone I can as hard as I could, that’s what this business is about is winning races.”
Burton finished third after Cole Rouse edged him for second in his debut for Bill McAnally Racing.
“I feel like we’ve been racing each other since we were five or six and in our years of racing together, we’ve gotten into it, had great races and had a lot of fun – man, that’s what it’s about right there,” said Burton, who won the East series championship last season.
Burton was content with his aggressive battle with Gilliland noting that he would have pulled the same move on Gilliland that he did on him for the race win.
It was Gilliland’s first victory with DGR-Crosley which is owned by his father and new partner Bo LeMastus, president of Crosley Brands.
Behind Rouse and Burton, Derek Kraus and Tyler Ankrum also driving for DGR completed the top-five.
Spencer Davis finished sixth, Anthony Sergei driving for Ben Kennedy Racing took seventh, K&N East full-timers Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Tyler Dippel claimed eighth and ninth respectively, while Brandon McReynolds rounded out the top-10 in his K&N East return.
Hailie Deegan, the daughter of legendary X-Games athlete Brian Deegan made her K&N East Series debut Sunday but finished last after experiencing mechanical woes 19 laps into the race.
She qualified ninth.
Other notable finishes included: Ryan Vargas (12th), Joe Graf Jr. (15th), Jimmy Zacharias (17th), Chase Cabre (19th) and Jesse Iwuji (22nd).
Anthony Alfredo and Dillon Bassett were contenders for a top-10 finish late in the race, but the two collided on the frontstretch on Lap 133 and were eliminated from competition. They finished 24th and 25th respectively.
The K&N East returns to action at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Sat., Apr. 14 for the Zombie Auto 150.
Both Gilliland and Burton are expected to compete despite running limited schedules.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
