by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Todd Gilliland picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday and Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at the Michigan International Speedway when his #38 Grillo’s Pickles Ford was involved in a multi-car accident after 114 of 206 laps.

The finish came in Gilliland’s 96th series start. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 20th for the #38, the 672nd from a crash, and the 748th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 60th for the #38, the 1,045th for Ford, and the 1,388th from a crash.

Twice a winner in the ARCA Menards Series, and a three-time winner in the Craftsman Truck Series – each win with a different team – the third-generation racer came into 2022 with the odds stacked against him. He would skip the NASCAR XFINITY Series entirely and make the jump to the Cup Series, running the #38 Ford his father David used to drive at Front Row Motorsports.

Since David’s departure at the end of the 2015 campaign, the #38 team had changed drivers on a near-yearly basis, from Landon Cassill (2016) and David Ragan (2017-2019), to the back-to-back rookie campaigns of John Hunter Nemechek (2020) and Anthony Alfredo (2021). And though the team’s flagship #34 has continued to find its way to an occasional Cup Series victory, the #38 continues to search for its first. Adding to the challenge, unlike his predecessors, Gilliland would run his first Cup races in the brand-new NextGen car.

But through that first season in 2022, Gilliland showed promise – first a series of top-twenty finishes, and then a 4th on the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit, then a 7th at Talladega, leading laps in each. He became the first driver since David Ragan to return to the car for a second year, where he doubled his top-ten finish total with particularly strong runs on both short tracks and superspeedways. Among these was a sterling performance in his Gatorade Duel, where he saved his car from a spin during a tight battle for the lead.

This year, entering Sunday’s race, Gilliland has already matched his four top-ten finishes of a year ago, moving him from 28th to 19th in points. He's also become a threat as the series’ next first-time winner, leading 16 laps in the Daytona 500, another 58 laps at Atlanta where he qualified 4th, 14 in Phoenix, and 19 in the rain-soaked Loudon event. He’s also showed remarkable consistency: heading into Sunday, he’d only once finished outside the Top 20 in the last 12 races since Kansas in May.

Through it all, though brake issues left him last in the Clash at the Coliseum this past February, Gilliland had yet to finish last in any of his 189 combined points races in NASCAR’s three national series.

At Michigan, Gilliland began the weekend as the slowest of the 36 entrants in practice. However, when qualifying was rained out, the metric ranked him 20th on the grid.

Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Cody Ware, back behind the wheel of Rick Ware Racing’s #15 Parts Plus Ford. When the green flag dropped after a rain delay on Sunday, Ware crossed the line just ahead of 35th-place starter A.J. Allmendinger in the #16 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet: Allmendinger with a 2.672 second gap from the lead to Ware’s 2.644. By the end of Lap 1, Ware was now door-to-door with Harrison Burton’s #21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford, the pair separated by just 0.021 second. Burton held off Ware, but could only inch away by 0.177.

On Lap 4, the 35th spot fell to Corey LaJoie in the #7 Garner Trucking Chevrolet who found himself just 0.164 second ahead of Ware. The next time by, both LaJoie and Ware had moved ahead of 16th-place starter Josh Berry, who was fighting a terribly loose #4 Oerstock.com Ford. At the stripe to begin Lap 5, Berry and Ware were door-to-door, separated by just 0.068 second. Berry fought back on Lap 6, putting Ware to last by a mere eight-thousandths of a second. But on Lap 7, Ware shook off Berry and opened a gap of 0.479. The next time by, Berry was already 1.624 seconds back of Ware, then 2.700 behind on Lap 9.

On Lap 10, the now 35th-place Ware caught and passed John Hunter Nemechek in his #42 Mobil 1 Toyota. By then, Berry was already 3.138 seconds behind the pair, who were separated by five-thousandths of a second. For now, Nemechek held off Ware, who remained in 35th. “I'm not mathematician,” said someone on Berry’s channel on Lap 12, “But we're gonna need a caution to keep from going a lap down.” The gap from Ware back to Berry continued to grow: 6.540 seconds on Lap 16, 7.757 on Lap 17, and 8.644 on Lap 18. On Lap 19, Ware caught and passed his teammate Justin Haley in the #51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford, moving Haley to the 35th spot. Haley, too, was losing touch with the cars in front, falling 1.354 seconds behind Ware on Lap 21 with Berry another 10.179 behind in last. Haley managed to stay within 1.120 seconds of Ware through Lap 24, but by then, Berry was a full 12.608 seconds behind the #51 with the leaders closing fast. Heading down the backstretch on Lap 25, then-leaders Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin put Berry a lap down, tightening their own side-by-side battle. The 3rd and 4th-place cars of Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace cleared Berry by the time the leaders exited Turn 4.

On Lap 38, the leaders had yet to catch 35th-place Haley when 2nd-place Hamlin spun his #11 Yahoo! Toyota off Turn 4 and into the infield grass, drawing the first caution of the race. Berry earned his lap back, and Hamlin returned to pit road without dropping to last place. Instead, after stops completed on Lap 41, the spot fell to Michael McDowell in the #34 Martin Transportation Systems Ford. The next time by, the spot fell to Carson Hocevar in the #77 Premier Security / Zeigler.com Chevrolet, just before the race restarted on Lap 43. Hocevar made quick work of Berry, who fell to last again on Lap 44 by a full 0.569 second. But this time, Berry fell no further, remaining within a half-second of 35th-place when Stage 1 ended on Lap 47.

During this stage-ending caution, another series of storms soaked the Michigan track, forcing the red flag on Lap 52 and the eventual postponement of the remaining 148 laps until 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Monday morning.

Under much sunnier skies, engines re-fired on Monday morning. With stops completed just before the red flag, pit road remained closed, though four drivers incurred penalties to make stops before the restart. Among these was Hamlin, who took over 36th on Lap 54 for further repairs to the underside of his Toyota after the spin on Sunday. Also docked were Erik Jones in the #43 Dollar Tree Toyota, Carson Hocevar, and Justin Haley. Of this group, Haley took over last on Lap 55, just before the restart on Lap 56. By then, Haley had also lost a lap, putting him in the Lucky Dog spot if another early caution fell.

A 54-lap green-flag run ensued, during which John Hunter Nemechek damaged a toe link on his #42, dropping him to 35th, then off the lead lap on Lap 74. Haley still held the last spot, but now drafted with McDowell, allowing him to reel in Nemechek. This was accomplished on Lap 82, putting Haley back in the Lucky Dog spot once more. Nemechek continued to struggle, the team electing to wait until the end of Stage 2 to repair the toe link. Until then, he fell a second lap behind on Lap 91, then nearly fell a third lap down after he completed a scheduled green-flag stop on Lap 97.

Gilliland’s troubles began on Lap 108, when he came down pit road under green with the right-rear tire flat. Moments later, Joey Logano suffered the same issue on his #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford, but after running much faster along the apron, the tire came apart, drawing the caution flag. At nearly the same instant, A.J. Allmendinger spun his Chevrolet near the entrance of Turn 1, flattening at least two tires and leaving him stranded on the apron. As Logano joined Gilliland on pit road for fresh tires, Allmendinger’s car was towed around the track’s entire circumference. Without the optional rear lifter installed on his car, Allmendinger’s car was dragged at an awkward angle, further damaging the underbody. The frustrated driver took over last place on Lap 113, when he arrived in his pit stall a full four laps down. The crew completed a four-tire change and sent him back out for the Lap 116 restart.

But, again, there was trouble. Coming off Turn 4 to compete the first lap at speed, Kyle Larson was running 9th when he lost control of his #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet in the high lane, collecting Bubba Wallace’s #23 McDonald’s Toyota and stacking up much of the outside line behind them. At that moment, Gilliland was running some distance behind on the inside line when he rear-ended a slowing Chris Buescher in the #17 Fifth Third Bank Ford, slid up and clipped Christopher Bell’s #20 Rheem Toyota, then slid higher still, banging doors with Chase Briscoe’s #14 HighPoint.com Ford as the two found the outside wall. All four cars spun down the banking into the grass, joining Larson, who stopped near the outer pit wall, and Joey Logano, whose Ford was collected by Buescher.

Gilliland took over last place on Lap 120, when he fell a fifth lap down as his car was brought to the garage. Both Bell and Larson followed – Larson after he found he couldn’t steer his damaged Chevrolet – and with Logano completed the next three spots in the Bottom Five. LaJoie completed the group after a frightening incident on Lap 136. One lap after bumping Noah Gragson’s #10 Overstock.com Ford on the backstretch, LaJoie made contact with Gragson’s left-rear bumper. This inexplicably caused LaJoie’s Chevrolet to swerve left, catch air, and slide into the grass on its roof. There, the car flipped to a stop. LaJoie climbed out and was soon checked and released from the infield care center.

Two of the three Spire entries enjoy strong finishes at Michigan

While LaJoie’s day ended in frustration, both his rookie teammates at Spire Motorsports enjoyed top-ten finishes – a first for the team. Zane Smith continued his streak of impressive runs since Nashville by rushing past traffic in the high lane on the final restart, earning a 7th-place run in his #71 Focused Health Chevrolet. Three spots behind him came Carson Hocevar, who after both running last and incurring a tail-end penalty on Monday rallied to earn his second-consecutive top-ten finish and fourth of the 2024 season.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #38 in a Cup Series race at Michigan.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

36) #38-Todd Gilliland / 114 laps / crash

35) #20-Christopher Bell / 115 laps / crash

34) #5-Kyle Larson / 115 laps / crash

33) #22-Joey Logano / 117 laps / crash

32) #7-Corey LaJoie / 135 laps / crash

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Spire Motorsports, Stewart-Haas Racing (3)

2nd) Penske Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Ford (11)

2nd) Chevrolet (8)

3rd) Toyota (4)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP