Gilliland climbs into Busch Series spotlight

The pole-sitter for the Daytona 500 was just an obscure driver nine months ago.
By GREG ENGLE
SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Nine months ago, David Gilliland was just another name turning laps in the Busch Series.
Sunday he will be the pole-sitter for the biggest race in NASCAR, the Daytona 500.
This is the same David Gilliland who burst onto the NASCAR scene with his stunning Busch Series victory at Kentucky eight months ago, yet finished no better than 26th in his other eight Busch races and had an average finish of 28.3 in his 15 Cup races that followed his unlikely win.
"It's like a dream that I'm afraid to wake up from," Gilliland said this week. "So many good things have happened in such a short period of time, but I just hope to keep the ball rolling."
Gilliland's strong week -- he also finished fourth in the first 150-mile Gatorade Duel Thursday -- puts the 30-year-old at the forefront of a resurgence of Robert Yates Racing, a team that was being counted out just months before.
In the middle of 2006, Yates' flagship drivers abandoned the team. First, 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett left for the new Michael Waltrip Racing organization, taking with him longtime sponsor UPS. Then Elliott Sadler left for Evernham Motorsports. Since 2003, the Yates pair had produced only four victories, and each felt he could do better elsewhere.
Yates seemed to have trouble filling the vacated seats. He put rookie Gilliland into Sadler's No. 38, but the No. 88 seat remained open ever after the season ended. The situation sank to the point where there was speculation Yates was considering shutting the doors on his operation.
Rudd comes back
Then 31-year Cup veteran Ricky Rudd reappeared after a year away from the sport to take over the No. 88. Yates and Rudd, 50, had worked together before, from 2000 to 2003, scoring three wins.
Rudd will share the front row with his young teammate, making a strong statement for Robert Yates Racing.
"I'll be honest," Rudd said. "I would not have come back to work if I didn't think this team was solid enough to have an opportunity to win some races. I like what I see. The team is playing a little bit of catch-up right now, but to sit here and see the success the team has had, I'm not totally shocked by it."
Rudd would like to see his name on a trophy at Daytona. He is winless there in 58 races. He has seven top-5s and 21 top-10s.
"It's a big event -- always has been," said Rudd, whose history at Daytona began in 1976. "It's a little bit intimidating when you get here for the first time. It's still a big place, a big event, a big race. So you know it's a very important race when you get here."
Gilliland's first Daytona 500
For Gilliland, his first Daytona 500 will be the continuation of a storybook career. One year ago, during Speedweeks, Gilliland was working in a shop in Statesville, N.C., with a struggling Busch team that hoped to run 15 Busch races in 2006.
"Originally with our Busch deal -- the 84 car last year -- our original plans were to come to Daytona, and when we couldn't I was heartbroken," Gilliland said. "Billy Wilburn was my crew chief, and he said, 'This is a place that when you come here, you want to be 100 percent prepared,' and we wouldn't have been. But now with [crew chief] Todd Parrott on our Cup side, I feel that we're every bit 100 percent prepared. So I'm excited and we'll see what we can bring out of here."