No. 34 Long John Silver's Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
Starting from the pole, his fourth of the season, Michael McDowell dictated the pace for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. Drafting with teammate Todd Gilliland, McDowell was able to keep the No. 34 Long John Silver's Ford Mustang Dark Horse up front the majority of the night finishing Stage 1 in 8th place and Stage 2 in the 11th spot. McDowell restarted third on lap 145, but quickly was able to get back to the point after the No. 6 was black flagged for jumping the ensuing restart. From there, he maintained first-place, leading 26 total laps. Unfortunately, with nine laps to go, McDowell was bumped in Turn 1 trying to merge back to the top line and was involved in a multi-car wreck. McDowell was checked and released from the care center, finishing 30th position.
Start: 1st
Stage One: 8th
Stage Two: 11th
Race Result: 30th
DRIVER MICHAEL MCDOWELL:
"I’m just bummed. We had a really fast Long John Silver Ford Mustang. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row. We had a ton of speed with both cars this weekend and with a few laps to go we put ourselves in position to win the race and that’s what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the end and that’s part of this racing. I haven’t watched it in detail to know exactly what happened, so I don’t want to throw any opinions out there because Lord knows that I’ve made plenty of mistakes at superspeedways and I want to make sure it wasn’t me. But I felt like I got turned getting down into turn one. The wrong angle at the wrong time, but Austin was doing a great job of pushing me. We had a good run and you’re at the end of these races, so I’m not faulting him. We were trying to do what we could."
No. 38 Grillo's Pickles Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
Todd Gilliland made his return to the "World Center of Racing" for a Saturday night race. Grillo's Pickles made their Daytona International Speedway debut, partnering with Gilliland and Front Row Motorsports for the 160-lap event.
Starting on the front row next to his teammate and pole-sitter Michael McDowell, Gilliland was ready to capitalize on his career best qualifying effort. Gilliland eventually took the lead, but was shuffled into the Top-10, finishing Stage 1 in sixth. Gilliland avoided the multi-car wreck on lap 60, then pitted for fuel only under caution. A caution for the No. 16 brought Gilliland back to pit road for right-side tires and fuel. Gilliland raced hard to the end of the stage, finishing 5th. Taking fuel only under the stage-break caution, Gilliland was served with a pit road penalty for a crew member who went over the wall too soon. Gilliland battled back from the penalty but was involved in a multi-car incident with just two laps remaining in the race. The team made the necessary repairs to the No. 38 before getting back on track to survive the overtime and finish the race in 23rd.
Start: 2nd
Stage One: 6th
Stage Two: 5th
Race Result: 23rd
DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:
“We had a really fast car. I thought we could go about anywhere, and we had a lot of speed. It’s disappointing when you feel like you kind of waste one, but it is Daytona. We missed the first wreck, but weren’t so lucky on the last one. That’s racing for you."
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