Gilliland Brings Home 26th-Place Finish in Chicago

David Gilliland

David Gilliland brought his No. 84 Clay Andrews Racing Chevrolet home in the 26th position in Saturday’s running of the USG Durock 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. A speeding penalty on a lap 79 green flag pit stop forced the Ranchwood Homes entry two laps down, a fate from which the team could not recover.

“I should have practiced getting on pit road on Friday,” said Gilliland. “It just really came up on me. I, obviously, take all the blame.”

Gilliland took the green flag from the eighth starting position as he was the highest rookie and non-NEXTEL Cup qualifier. However at the start it was clear that the Monte Carlo was not to Gilliland’s liking. Due to an extremely tight condition, especially in turns 1 and 2, he fell back to the 12th position in only a handful of green flag laps. Crew chief

Bill Wilburn called Gilliland in on a lap 16 caution beginning the track position match that would win out on this day.

“We are trying some of this new radical spring stuff that many of the top teams are doing,” said Wilburn. “We haven’t had a lot of laps to perfect it yet. At Kentucky it worked beautifully, but today we were a little off. It was a long day, but we made a huge jump in our learning curve.”

“I am very proud of this Clay Andrews Racing team,” continued Gilliland. “They worked their tails off to try to get the car better for me and they did. For the last 50 laps we were working just to get by the No. 10, making changes just to gain one spot. As a driver you cannot ask for more out of a team than to keep grinding until the checkered falls.”

The Clay Andrews Racing team will have a one week hiatus before heading to the famed half-mile oval at Martinsville.

Ranchwood Homes once again adorned the quarter panel of the No. 84 entry this weekend. This marked the third race that the southern California home builder has sponsored Clay Andrews Racing. Ranchwood Homes, one of the largest homebuilder employers in the San Fernando Valley, is complemented by a transportation company that handles both on-site and off-site development for Ranchwood Homes and other businesses. The owners also operate Hostetler Ranches, which includes 10,000 acres of almonds, vineyards and grain crops. Among the wine grapes grown in the vineyards are Chardonnay, Cabernet, Zinfandel, Syrah, Grenache and French Columbard.