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David Gilliland Going for Hat-Trick at Lowe's Mooresville, North Carolina (May 13, 2009) - David Gilliland will be going for the weekend Hat-Trick at Lowe's Motor Speedway starting Friday, May 15th with his appearance in the No. 7 TRG ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:54 PM

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David Gilliland Going for Hat-Trick at Lowe's

Mooresville, North Carolina (May 13, 2009) - David Gilliland will be going for the weekend Hat-Trick at Lowe's Motor Speedway starting Friday, May 15th with his appearance in the No. 7 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 race. Gilliland will then transition to the No. 71 team Sprint Cup car for the Sprint All-Star Open race and then the Coca-Cola 600 in 10-days.

Gilliland has two Camping World Truck Series starts in his career, both at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the last in 2005. Gilliland will also attempt to race his way in, or be voted in by the fans, to run the Sprint All-Star race on Saturday evening. Of course the team will follow-up in 10-days later with the Coca-Cola 600.

"I raced the trucks both times in Las Vegas, but that was four years ago," Gilliland said. "The truck is fun to drive, it has a lot of downforce and you can really drive them hard. I am excited to run the trucks again. The TRG Motorsports guys have great equipment which was proven by JR Fitzpatrick nearly winning at Daytona. This will be a big weekend for TRG Motorsports, running the truck and the Sprint Cup car on the same weekend. I hope to have a very competitive two days."

Gilliland likes the atmosphere at Lowe's Motor Speedway over the next week.

"All of the crew guys have their families there, and we can sleep in our own beds. It is a real home game for most of the teams. It is important to try and run well there. All of the guys and support people from the shop are there to lend support and be a part of the team at the track, which they don't get to do but a couple of times a year. A lot of teams put unnecessary pressure on themselves to run well there. It is usually a great show and makes for some very exciting racing for the fans."

Gilliland likes the Lowe's circuit.

"The track is fast. It is very similar to Vegas, which we ran well at early in the year. I have run fast there in the past, but have also had some bad luck there as well. I was running really good last year when Brian Vickers lost a tire, it went in the air and landed on my windshield at the start of the race."

To vote for Gilliland to get into the All-Star race go to www.nascar.com/promos/allstar/?sc_cid=allstar25.

Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal, is looking forward to a strong weekend with Gilliland in both series.

"We have decided to put David in our truck for the Lowe's race this weekend," Buckler said. "We are still hunting for sponsorship for this really cool "hat trick" week, but we should be able to pull it off. We have great equipment that has won in the series and we are looking for a funded driver to run some races with us after Charlotte. The truck guys are excited and the Sprint Cup team is ready to go. The All-Star race has had some good stories come out of it with how competitive it is and really anything can happen. We are ready to have a good run and we are giving ourselves three chances in the next 10 days to show what his little team can do."

-credit: trgm

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