Gilliland proud to win 2026 In-Season Challenge: 'We made the most of it'
Hear from 2026 In-Season Challenge champion Todd Gilliland and what the milestone means to him and the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team.
Video Transcript
Yes, I'm here with John Probst, president of NASCAR Event Management, to hand Todd Gilliland the trophy for the End Season Challenge.
John?
Todd, congratulations.
Thank you.
You and your team deserve it all.
Thank you.
Well done.
For $1 million, held off Ryan Blaney by two positions.
After that wreck, Todd, what was it like to hold off Ryan down the stretch?
Yeah, it was nerve-wracking.
Even though we were 24th, 26th or whatever, yeah, it felt good to feel those nerves of, like, someone chasing you down and for something meaningful.
So, yeah, it seemed like we just barely skated by every single round.
It was just, yeah, we, we did what we had to do.
So, we weren't great today, but we made the most of it, and came out of here with the, End Season Challenge champion.
So, we'll take it.
It's a huge thank you to Grillo's, Love's, Ford, Ford Racing, everyone at Front Row Motorsports so much.
We still got a long ways to go, but, you know, this is something to celebrate, for sure.
You told me this morning there's something sweet about an underdog story in sports, and fans were pulling for you on social media the last five weeks to pull it off.
Todd, what does it mean to a team like yours at Front Row Motorsports?
I think for me, the coolest thing has been seeing all my guys.
You know, the, the intensity ramping up over You know, the first week, it- it's tough.
You look up at the top of this mountain, right?
Of beating five rounds of these great drivers, and it seems almost impossible.
Then you start clicking off one, two, and then, you know, they started just really digging in and, you know, they pushed themselves to a new level.
So I think that's really cool for all of them, you know, to see that.
It was cool for me to see.
Yeah, it's just, Hopefully we can keep this intensity up, you know?
I, I think we always found, you know, just a little bit more in all ourselves.
So, really pumped.
Yeah, to take Front Row Motorsports through five rounds of great drivers is really, really cool.
Yeah, two of those, Carson Hocevar and Chase Elliott.
A lot to be proud of, Todd.
A million dollars.
Steve Letarte said, "I'm gonna try to convince Todd to join a few country clubs so we can go golfing."
Will you take him up on it?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Steve, Steve's my, my dog and, yeah, it's really, really cool.
So just what a special place.
Looking around at the, you know, the Brickyard.
You know, competing in the Brickyard 400 is cool enough, so, we'll have to figure out what to do with a million bucks.
How about a steak dinner for these guys?
They worked hard out here all- Absolutely.
They deserve it.
They deserve all of it, for sure.
Congratulations to Todd Gilliland, everyone at Front Row Motorsports.
$1 million in the End Season Bracket Challenge.
