David Gilliland

Regional series

In 1996, he began working on his father's Winston West Series (now K&N Pro Series West) team. By 1999, Gilliland won the track championship at Perris Auto Speedway (a dirt track). Then, the following year he began a limited season in the AutoZone West Series. In 2003, Gilliland won five races in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, in the No. 11 Centrifugal Technologies Chevrolet. He finished the season with five top-fives and eight top-tens and a sixth-place finish in points.

In 2004, Gilliland announced plans to run the full schedule in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, in the No. 88 Chevrolet for MRG Motorsports and all non-conflicting NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series (now AutoZone West), races. He got his first AutoZone West win at Mesa Marin Raceway. He was then named NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series Rookie of the Year. He also had two victories in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series.

National series

Gilliland made his first attempt at a major NASCAR race in 2003, at the Las Vegas 350 in the Craftsman Truck Series, but failed to qualify. He announced that Clay Andrews Racing would form in mid-2005. Gilliland made his Busch Series debut at Phoenix, qualifying 28th. However, he was involved with an early crash and finished 43rd. Gilliland made the other Phoenix race later in the year, but had the same result. He was 43rd after ignition troubles. Also, he ran the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevy at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Craftsman Truck Series with a 22nd-place finish.

Meanwhile, Gilliland raced in the Grand National Division in 2005 and won the Toyota All-Star Showdown in 2005 when apparent winner Mike Olsen was disqualified for light wheels wider than regulation. The win brought Gilliland to the attention of Busch and Cup series team owners.

Gilliland began running the No. 84 Clay Andrews Chevy part-time in 2006, during which time he was mentored by former Sprint Cup race winner Jerry Nadeau. Gilliland, however, struggled to finish races, earning a best result of 29th in his first four starts of the year. However, in his next outing, Gilliland scored his first career Busch Series win at Kentucky on June 17. Gilliland drove the No. 84 Hype Manufacturing Chevrolet to victory, becoming the first driver of 2006 to win a Busch race who was not also running a full-time Nextel Cup schedule. FX television announcer Hermie Sadler called the victory "the biggest upset in Busch Series history".

Sprint Cup Series

Gilliland made his first attempt to make a Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, in the No. 72 CJM Racing Chevrolet, qualifying 31st, and finishing 32nd. In August 2006, Gilliland replaced Elliott Sadler as the driver of the M&Ms-sponsored Ford in the NEXTEL Cup Series. In qualifying for the 2007 Aaron's 499 on April 28, Gilliland recorded a speed of 192.069 miles per hour (309.105 km/h), which was identical to Jeff Gordon for the pole position. As Gordon had the points lead at the time of the race, Gilliland started the race in second, giving the pole to Gordon. On October 7, he qualified on the pole for the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the first pole of his career. He won his second career pole at the Daytona 500, his first points-paying race at the track, and finished 28th in NEXTEL Cup points. Gilliland drove part-time in the Busch Series for Team Rensi Motorsports with a sponsorship from FreeCreditReport.com in 2007, splitting the driving duties at Rensi with rookie Richard Johns. His best finish was a tenth at Daytona. In 2008, FreeCreditReport became his Cup sponsor and he had two top-ten finishes.

In January 2009, his No. 38 Sprint Cup team was closed due to a lack of sponsorship and his points from 2008 were moved to the No. 96 team of Bobby Labonte. After missing the Daytona 500, he was hired by TRG Motorsports for the rest of the 2009 season, with sponsorship from Capital Window and American Monster.

On September 18, 2009, Gilliland's future was thrown into question following TRG's announcement that Labonte would drive the No. 71 Chevrolet for seven of the final twelve races of the season while Erik Darnell drove the No. 96 Ford. Gilliland raced five additional times for TRG that season, also driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and Robby Gordon Motorsports. He drove for the Wood Brothers (filling in for Bill Elliott) at Atlanta and for Gibbs at Lowe's, Texas, and the season finale at Homestead. At the Auto Club Speedway in October, Gilliland relieved a sick Kyle Busch after parking his normal ride. He raced in Phoenix for Phoenix Racing. At the end of the 2009 season, he left TRG Motorsports and joined Front Row Motorsports.

In 2010, Gilliland drove the majority of the season with Front Row Motorsports in a third car, with his old number, 38, and got new numbers 34, and 37. He attempted the Daytona 500 for BAM Racing and failed to qualify. His best finish came at Martinsville and Sonoma, a 19th at both tracks.

He returned to Front Row Motorsports in 2011, to the Taco Bell car. He finished third in the 2011 Daytona 500, Front Row's best finish to that point, and finished in the top-10 later that year at Talladega. For 2012, he moved to the team's No. 38 car. Gilliland and his team received a multi-race sponsorship from Modspace for the 2012 racing season.

In 2013, at the spring Talladega race, Gilliland pushed FRM teammate David Ragan to victory in a green-white-checkered finish that saw Gilliland notch a career-best finish of second, giving FRM a one-two finish in the race.

Gilliland won the pole for the 2014 Coke Zero 400, with a lap speed of 199.322 miles per hour (320.778 km/h) his first pole since 2007, after qualifying ended early due to rain. It was the first pole for the Front Row Motorsports team.

Gilliland finished 11th at the season opener at Daytona in 2015.

Gilliland was replaced by Landon Cassill in 2016, but returned to FRM for the Daytona 500 in the No. 35. However, he failed to qualify for the race.Though the 500 was only supposed to be a one race deal, Gilliland and Front Row announced plans to run at Talladega in April. Gilliland qualified the race beating Josh Wise, and finished 17th when he was 3rd two to go.

In 2017 Gilliland had no plans on returning to Front Row Motorsports any time soon. Although on February 03, 2017, the company had announced that they had acquired a third charter for possible plans for a 2018 expansion for the company. Front Row also says it intends to lease the charter to TriStar Motorsports' No. 72 team this year in 2017 in advance of fielding three full-time entries the following season. Since then both Front Row and TriStar Motorsports have formed an alliance and the no. 72 car is running full time in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Front Row has also stated that they may bring back Gilliland or previous no. 35 driver Cole Whitt to their 2018 or 2019 lineup.

He is currently the owner of a car in the K&N Pro Series East.

Personal life

Gilliland was a high school golf teammate of Tiger Woods at Western High School in Anaheim.

He is married to wife Michelle and the couple have two children, Todd and Taylor.

His son Todd has a racing career and on May 17, 2015, became the youngest winner in the history of ARCA at age 15 and 2 days with a win at Toledo Speedway. Todd followed it up with a win at the K&N Pro Series West race at Phoenix International Raceway, making three generations of the Gilliland family to have won in the series.

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

Daytona 500

Camping World Truck Series

* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points