Michigan: David Gilliland qualifying report

Gilliland Qualifies 35th at Michigan

Brooklyn, Mich., (June 12, 2009) - David Gilliland qualified the No. 71 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS in 35th place for Sunday's LifeLock 400 to be run at Michigan International Speedway (MIS).

Gilliland, from Riverside, California, put in a lap time of 38.801 seconds and an average speed of 186 mph.

"Slugger (Richard "Slugger" Labbe, crew chief) and the guys made some great adjustments for qualifying," Gilliland said. "That was by far the best the car has handled since we unloaded. I got through one and two the best that I have all day, and then I over drove the car a little too hard into three. I never got down to where I needed to be on the track in three and four. A little bit of driver error there. We definitely have some more speed in the car and we went the right way with the setup. We are in the race and we will work hard on getting the car dialed in during tomorrow's practice."

Qualifying was run about when the race will be a mid-distance.

"This track has some age on it.  Any time the tracks are like that they
become more sensitive to temperature.  When this track gets hot it gets
slick.  We may see some of that on Sunday."

The wide MIS racing surface lends itself more to long fuel runs without caution periods.

"The race will probably come down to fuel mileage. You have to have a car good enough to stay on the lead lap as there will be a lot of long green flag runs. We'll also work on fuel mileage, it's all part of what we will focus on tomorrow during practice."

TRG Motorsports team principal, Kevin Buckler, likes the competition level of the team.

"David does a great job in qualifying," Buckler said. "The guys threw a lot of changes at the car during practice and before qualifying that, once again, paid off. This is a testament to the communication of this small team and the grit it takes to get the job done at the track. We are working hard to stay in the series and keep this great little team going, we just need that sponsor/partner to help us become whole as a team and allow us to become regular competitors."

-credit: trgm