NASCAR Cup

David Gilliland Prepared for Pocono Event

Pocono Raceway

Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 1:03 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

David Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Third Turn Is the Charm
Gilliland Narrows Focus at Tricky Triangle

David Gilliland's opinion of Pocono Raceway has changed over the years. So has his approach to racing there. The driver of the No. 34 Taco Bell Ford previously didn't care for the 2.5-mile tri-oval in Long Pond, Pa., but now says he enjoys the venue, where he'll race in Sunday's 5-Hour ENERGY 500. He has also changed his focus on how to attack the low-banked track known as the "Tricky Triangle," concentrating on mastering Turn 3, which is the flattest of the three corners.

Gilliland has been fast in the past at Pocono, qualifying third for the Sprint Cup Series race in 2008. In his eight starts at the tri-oval, his best finish is 16th.

Comments from Taco Bell team driver David Gilliland on Pocono:

David Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

"I like Pocono now. I admit I didn't always feel that way. It's different, it's got three unique corners that all react differently with the racecar. The first couple times I went there, I attacked it like any other racetrack I went to. I started working on the car and getting it to turn in the first corner you come to, which is Turn 1. And I came to learn that that's the complete opposite of what you want to do in Pocono.

"We've learned a lot there. I think my best qualifying spot there was in the top-five. So, we've had good speed there, we just have to get our car working well in Turn 3, and that's going to be our primary focus. I feel like we've learned some things earlier in the year that we'll be able to take to Pocono.

"It's been a learning experience for our team with these new cars that we have. It's almost like we had to start over after everything we learned last year because we got a whole new fleet of cars for this year that are so different. But we've taken some really good strides lately and hopefully we'll be able to take some of that knowledge and apply it at Pocono.

"Last week at Kansas, we were terrible off the truck. But Peter (Sospenzo) and the guys made some good changes to the car and had our Taco Bell Ford Fusion running pretty well during the race. Obviously we would prefer to bring a good car to the track to begin with and get a better qualifying run out of it, but the fact that we can adapt and come up with something decent while we're there is still good progress. Sometimes you really don't have a track figured out with a particular car until you're there and running around it for a couple days.

"Pocono isn't just a cool track, but the whole area around the Poconos is a neat place. It's really quiet and peaceful. It kind of makes you slow down and relax and enjoy the surroundings, so it's always a cool place to visit."

-source: front row motorsports

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Front Row Motorsports Names Hornish For Pocono

Next article Kyle Busch Ready For Pocono Raceway

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

WEC Barcelona: Genesis secures maiden series pole from Toyota

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

51 min

WEC Barcelona: Genesis secures maiden series pole from Toyota

Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 1 h

Five-time IndyCar champion, first-time Indy NXT driver: Alex Palou tops IMS road course test

Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

2 h

Gabriel Bortoleto on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar's F1 success: 'Let's see where we are in 20 years'

Nicki Thiim's cheeky F1 jab: "Max Verstappen just wants to drive a proper race car!"

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 2 h

Nicki Thiim's cheeky F1 jab: "Max Verstappen just wants to drive a proper race car!"

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts