David Gilliland

David Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Starting Position: 39

Finishing Position: 32

David Gilliland started Sunday's Pure Michigan 400 in the 39th position -- and learned quickly that he had his hands full. "Loose, loose, loose," was the report back to crew chief Peter Sospenzo in the early laps.  And it's a report that Sospenzo would continue to hear for much of the afternoon.

A caution flag on Lap 29 gave Gilliland the chance to bring his Ford Fusion to pit road for adjustments to help the rear end of the car.  But the No. 34 machine remained too free over the next green-flag run and Gilliland went a lap down.  A second yellow flag on Lap 53 gave the team the "Lucky Dog" pass to return to the lead lap as well as a chance to return to pit road for more adjustments.

After a Lap-57 restart in the 35th position, Gilliland reported the car was improved, but that it was still pretty loose.  The team continued to work on the car with each stop over the next 140-plus laps, but they couldn't gain much ground over the course of the green-flag runs.  Gilliland crossed the line in 32nd under a green-white-checkered finish that gave Kyle Busch the win.

   
Comments from driver David Gilliland after the Michigan race:

"Our car was really loose all day.  It was tough to keep it out of the wall.  Peter and the guys made a lot of changes throughout the race to help it, but I could never really drive it the way I needed to.  Michigan is a tough place to have a tough-handling car because of the long green-flag runs.  You find yourself falling back in a hurry.  I'm looking forward to going to Bristol for the night race next week, though. We were fast there in the spring so we're excited to get back there."

Travis Kvapil

Travis Kvapil, No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford

Starting Position: 27

Finishing Position: 28

Travis Kvapil's strong qualifying effort had him taking the green flag in the 27th position. And the team's practice efforts had the Long John Silver's Ford starting the race with a pretty fair-handling set-up.  With the No. 7 car failing to qualify for the event, the No. 38 team was looking to gain as much ground as possible on the team directly ahead of them in the owner-point ranks.

The team got their first chance to do so on Lap 30, when Kvapil earned a bonus point for leading a lap under caution -- his first of three laps led on the day.  He then pitted for adjustments, reporting to crew chief Jay Guy that his car was "a little free" going into the corners and "a little tight" through the center of the turns.

"A little" of this and "a little" of that was a common refrain heard over the team's radio throughout the afternoon. Kvapil's Ford Fusion was "a little tight" or "a little free" for much of the 203-lap event.  With each pit stop, the team worked to finesse the handling of the car to allow Kvapil to try to gain more positions. 

At the half-way mark, Kvapil was in 30th position and one lap down, but a caution flag soon dropped in his favor to give him the "Lucky Dog" pass to return to the lead lap.  The second half of the race saw the No. 38 Ford continue to fluctuate between "loose" and "tight," and the team kept fine-tuning to try to give Kvapil a chance at the top-25.  As the race headed toward a green-white-checkered finish, the team gained a couple spots to take the final restart in 28th, which is where Kvapil crossed the line at the end of the race.

   
Comments from driver Travis Kvapil after the Michigan race:

"It wasn't bad.  We just seemed to be on a pretty fine line to make it either too loose one way or too tight another way.  We went back and forth across that line a few times all day.  We had decent speed, so we weren't too far off."

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