David Gilliland

Fontana, Calif. (February 22, 2009) - David Gilliland gave TRG Motorsports their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series checkered flag. Gilliland finished the Auto Club Speedway 500 in 33rd position in the TRG Motorsports No. 71 Chevrolet Impala SS.

Gilliland, originally from nearby Riverside, ran a calculated race to gain maximum points on the day. For the first time Sprint Cup effort the team gained valuable knowledge all race that can be applied to next weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The race witnessed four caution periods for rain and one for a single car wreck. The team, led by crew chief Richard "Slugger" Labbe, made the most of what the No. 71 Chevy had to give today.

"Overall not a bad day," Gilliland said. "We fought the car all race. I had a little bit of a brake problem, but we are going to Vegas. We tried a lot of things during the pit stops with the thought of making the car better for next weekend. We did some little things that made us get better as a team. The car is in one piece, which was our first goal. Now we can take what we learned to the track next week and try to step up our performance a couple of notches."

The brakes on the No. 71 Chevy Impala SS played havoc with the car all night.

"The car pulled really bad to the left. As soon as you put pressure on the brake the car would actually change lanes. That made it really difficult to drive into the corner side-by-side with people. We will get that taken care of and next week we will be that much further ahead."

Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal, was very satisfied with the way David drove and the way the team worked together.

"David did all that we asked of him today," Buckler said. "Every time the car came to pit road we made changes and the car got better. Slugger and David really worked well together and the communication was excellent. All we asked was to be in the top 35 and bring the car home in one piece. We accomplished those goals tonight and we are going to Vegas with a note book full of information to make the car better."

Round three of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 1.

TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina, where they run a NASCAR Sprint Cup team as well as a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team, and an ARCA RE/MAX Series effort. 2008 marked the first full season of competition for TRG in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where they recorded one win, one top-five and ten top ten finishes overall. The team's sister company, The Racer's Group, was founded in 1993 has been competing at the top level of motor racing ever since. The team kicked off this year's Speed Weeks on a high note by winning the GT class at the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona. TRG has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 26, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.