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Gilliland Ready for 600 Miles at Lowe's Mooresville, North Carolina (May 19, 2009) - David Gilliland and TRG Motorsports are ready to tackle 600 miles of racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 to be run on Sunday evening May ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:55 PM

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Gilliland Ready for 600 Miles at Lowe's

Mooresville, North Carolina (May 19, 2009) - David Gilliland and TRG Motorsports are ready to tackle 600 miles of racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 to be run on Sunday evening May 24.

David vote Gilliland has already put in a lot of miles a Lowe's in the past week finishing sixth in the Camping World Truck Series race and 15th in the All-Star Open event. The team was able to take away a lot data from last weekend to apply to race this Sunday. The key component will be a different No. 71 CompUSA/TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS than the team ran in the Open.

"We are bringing a different car back for the race than we ran in the 600," Gilliland said. "We learned a lot by running the Open and the truck race. We went ahead and used some of the cautions during the Open to adjust on the car and learn for the 600. Tire pressure and some other adjustments were made to really get the car handling well with a look toward this weekend. We are looking forward to the race. It was good that we ran the Open and we are able to carry that data forward to this weekend to shorten our learning curve. We still have to qualify our way in, so every little bit helps."

The race will start at 5:00 p.m., which will cause the track and car to change as night falls.

"Lowe's is one of the most, if not thee most weather sensitive track we race on. It changes a lot, gets a lot faster and gains a lot of grip at night. We will have to build some adjustability in the car with spring rubbers and think hard about our initial setup-up on the car. Slugger (Labbe crew chief) has all of this in mind. Other things include having your windshield prepared for the sun's glare as well as tear-offs on your helmet visor."

There will also be a few more pit stops than usual in 600 miles of racing.

"The pit stops will be that much more important. Our guys will have to be on their toes all night. Three will be a bunch of them with 600 miles of racing. The guys have been doing good pit work the last few races and we will be relying on them this weekend for sure."

Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal, is forging ahead with limited resources to keep this team going on the track.

"The Coca-Cola 600 is one of the biggest races on the schedule and I wanted to make sure we put our best stuff on the track," Buckler said. "The car we ran in the Open we didn't think was going to do we needed in the 600 so we brought a different one. We have very limited resources with this team so we are picking our battles very carefully and trying to perform at a very level on selected stages. We still need to land that sponsor/partner that can help us take this great little team forward into the future."

-credit: trgm

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