Todd Gilliland comes up short on fuel, Justin Haley grabs win at Texas

credit: Lisa Janine Cloud/Skirts and Scuffs

by Lisa Janine Cloud

Heartbroken.

That’s the only way to describe Todd Gilliland after his last-lap loss to Justin Haley in the Camping World Truck Series JAG Metals 350 at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night.

Gilliland led twice for a race-high 60 laps, including from Lap 124 through the last lap when his No. 4 JBL/SiriusXM Toyota ran out of fuel, crushing his hopes for scoring his first career Camping World Truck Series win.

The young driver did take some comfort in the fact that his team is capable of winning races, but as he addressed reporters with poise, it was obvious that this one’s going to sting for a while.  

credit: Lisa Janine Cloud/Skirts and Scuffs

Haley had accepted that he’d finish second. “We’re lucky, but we’re running fast trucks,” he said. Beyond that, he said he was speechless. “I don’t even know what to say. It was pretty surreal.”  

The 220.5-mile race saw the pole winner, Johnny Sauter, fall back early because of a flat tire, and quite a few trucks were involved in wrecks, slowing the race five times, plus the two stage-break cautions, a total of seven yellows for 36 laps.

Ben Rhodes finished second, his 12th top-ten finish this season. Brett Moffit came in third and Gilliland managed to limp back in fourth place and was the highest-finishing rookie.

Haley becomes the second Gallagher Motorsports truck to lock in a berth in the season finale. Teammate Sauter’s win at Martinsville put him in the final four. Sauter also leads the points standings by 19 over Moffitt.