Todd Gilliland
Todd Gilliland (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Todd Gilliland’s NASCAR Cup Series car delivers ARCA throwback at Atlanta Motor Speedway

www.arcaracing.com March 7, 2022

When the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway is christened with the three NASCAR national touring series on March 19-20, there will be a throwback to the first race on the track’s previous reconfiguration back in 1997.

The sponsor of Harris Devane’s winning car from the ARCA Menards Series race that year will look to make history again when the Georgia Peanuts colors will ride 25 years after an improbable home-state victory, this time on Todd Gilliland’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Gilliland is the youngest ever ARCA Menards Series winner. In 2015, he took the checkered flag at Toledo Speedway the day after he turned 15. He is also a two-time ARCA Menards Series West champion and is running for Sunoco Rookie of the Year in the Cup Series in 2022.

“It’s really exciting to be able to represent Georgia Peanuts this year,” said Gilliland. “They have a lot of history in stock car racing and racing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. I just want to continue that tradition and represent all the peanut farmers and the Georgia Peanuts brand to the best of my ability. It’s a great history to be a part of and continue.”

Atlanta Motor Speedway, originally built as a 1.522-mile true oval, was then reconfigured into a 1.54-mile quad-oval, with a double dogleg on what used to be the track’s backstretch but had been converted to be the new layout’s frontstretch. The new layout and grippy asphalt generated tremendous speeds, with Geoff Bodine’s pole speed for the NASCAR Cup Series race approaching 200 mph, 197.478 to be exact.

Not only was it fast, but it created great racing. That was evident once Cup qualifying wrapped up and the ARCA Menards Series race took to the new pavement.

A marathon 162-lap, 400-kilometer event called the Reese’s 400 saw a lot of action as the new track and high speeds caught up a lot of series regulars, leaving them with damaged race cars and hurt pride. But the finish was the precursor to today’s Reese’s Sweet Move of the Race, and perhaps would be the all-time Reese’s Sweet Move of the Year.

Frank Kimmel led the field to a restart at Lap 160 over 1995 series champion Andy Hillenburg and Devane, a local Georgia farmer. Kimmel jumped to the lead, but as they came to take the white flag, Hillenburg powered off Turn 4 in Stan Hover’s Ford, leading analyst and former ARCA champion Benny Parsons to exclaim — famously and infamously — that Hillenburg had been “shot out of a canyon.”

Kimmel and Hillenburg raced down the backstretch and, just as Parsons suggested he should do, Kimmel drove Hillenburg up the banking ever so slightly through the final two turns. But what no one anticipated was unheralded Devane, who started 29th in the 40-car field, to be in the mix.

The only one of the three on fresh tires, Devane stuck the left sides on the white line separating the banking from the asphalt and caught the car just as it started to slide sideways. He stayed on the throttle and pulled alongside both Kimmel and Hillenburg as they approached the first of the two doglegs. With less than 300 yards to go, they were side-by-side and Dr. Jerry Punch, calling play-by-play on ESPN asked, “who will it be?” as they quickly approached the finish.

Ray Dunlap exclaimed “Harris Devane!” as he nosed ahead, crossing the line in the No. 33 Georgia Peanuts Ford just 23 one-thousandths of a second ahead of Kimmel, surprising everyone at the track and watching at home. Hillenburg got hip-checked by Kimmel as they passed a lapped car and he slid out of control after finishing third, sliding into Turn 1 and backing into the outside wall.

Sadly, Devane passed away in 2018 at just 54. He made just five more appearances in the ARCA Menards Series and backed up his win with an impressive fourth-place finish at Atlanta the following year.

Coincidentally, one of the players in that three-wide finish, Frank Kimmel, works for David Gilliland Racing serving as car chief for Taylor Gray’s ARCA Menards Series efforts. The other, Andy Hillenburg, transitioned into team ownership and fields four cars in both the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East.