Gilliland’s Bristol Record a Reason to Root for A&W Car

Driver of No. 38 Ford Always Fast at Fan-Favorite Track

STATESVILLE, N.C. (March 12, 2013) – David Gilliland always brings some extra speed to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.  This week, he’s also bringing a new paint scheme.  The No. 38 Ford will feature the brown and orange scheme of A&W Restaurants for this weekend’s Food City 500 at the .533-mile oval.

Fans have a good reason to root for the root beer car.  Gilliland has always been fast and a strong qualifier at the fan-favorite short track.  His finished 20th in his most recent visit to Bristol last August and has a career-best ninth-place finish among his 13 Sprint Cup starts.

Comments from A&W team driver David Gilliland heading to Bristol:

“We feel like we’ve been really competitive as an organization at Bristol for the last couple years.  So, we’re excited about going back.  For me, the reconfiguration didn’t really change the racing much at all.  You still get so much momentum up high, as long as you can run up there, and it’s hard to pass down on the bottom.  So it’s still the same old Bristol.  We feel like we had a great package that has given us a lot of good speed there the past couple years, so Bristol is definitely a highlight on our schedule.

“We’re going to have A&W on our Ford Fusion for the first time this year.  It’s always a fan favorite.  People love A&W restaurants and the fans always liked when we’ve had them on the car in past seasons.  It’s just one of those classic, all-American places to go for good food.  And you can’t beat one of their root beer floats.

“I really do like short-track racing.  Bristol and Dover, and tracks like that, have been some of our strong tracks as an organization.  And the other short tracks, like Phoenix, Richmond and Martinsville where we haven’t been as strong, we’re taking a new package this year.  Frank Kerr, my new crew chief, has brought some neat things to our organization that I think are really going to help us at those flatter tracks, so I’m looking forward to being more competitive at those places as well.

“I’m feeling good about our intermediate program, too.  Last week at Las Vegas, we had a really good car and made a lot of positive changes that gave us a fast car for race day.  The mile-and-a-half’s have always been the races that we’ve needed the most improvement on.  And we’re seeing that improvement, and it’s gratifying.  Overall, this team is making huge strides.”

About Front Row Motorsports:

Front Row Motorsports fields the No. 34 of David Ragan, the No. 38 of David Gilliland and the No. 35 of Josh Wise in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  The team is owned by Bob Jenkins and is headquartered just outside of Charlotte, N.C.  In 2012, FRM was named to INC Magazine’s “INC 5000” list, recognizing the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., earning a rank of 800. Its partnership base is representative of more than $200 billion of the U.S. economy and includes organizations such as Ford Motor Company, CSX Transportation, Love’s Travel Stops, McCall Farms, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver’s. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Robin Johnson at rjohnson@frontrowmotorsports.com or Mike Laheta at mlaheta@frontrowmotorsports.com.

NEXT RACE:
FOOD CITY 500, BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Sunday, March 17, 1pm ET (FOX, PRN)

QUICK LINKS
FrontRowMotorsports.com
AWRestaurants.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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