BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – For the third consecutive year, Sunday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park ended with contact for the win on the final lap.
However, unlike in the previous two iterations of the Chevrolet Silverado 250, this year’s edition featured a battle between two young teammates that erupted into a chaotic finish and a post-race blast of emotions from rookie Todd Gilliland.
Despite missing the playoffs because he wasn’t old enough to compete in several of the season’s early events and couldn’t win his way in during the regular season, Gilliland appeared to be on his way to making a statement during Sunday’s playoff opener. He took the race lead from championship favorite Johnny Sauter with 11 laps left and drove off a lead of more than three seconds, seeking his first win.
Gilliland was being chased in the closing stages by Gragson, who was the runner-up when the race’s final caution flag waved with four laps to go in regulation, setting up an overtime restart with the two Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers on the front row for the final two-lap dash.
It was the No. 4 Toyota of Gilliland that got the jump on the restart, darting out to a lead of nearly a second before Gragson got his No. 18 Toyota underneath him and began reeling Gilliland back in.
The duo was separated by a half-second when they crossed under the white flag, but Gragson kept coming and was all over Gilliland’s back bumper when they reached the backstretch for the final time.
Unable to make a move at the end of that straightaway, Gragson tucked in behind Gilliland and patiently waited for his teammate to slip, which happened at the exit of turn nine when Gilliland slid off the corner and lost some of his momentum.
That opened up a small gap to the inside of the final right-hand corner leading back to the start-finish line, a gap which Gragson saw and pounced on. He shoved his nose to Gilliland’s inside and moved Gilliland out of the groove, but in doing so sent Gilliland spinning before his own truck also went around backwards from the momentum of the pass attempt and the contact between the two.
Amid a cloud of smoke, third-running Justin Haley then drove past both stalled KBM trucks to steal the win, while Gragson and Gilliland dropped to ninth and 11th, respectively, as they struggled to get their Toyotas looped back around before eventually limping across the finish line.
A visibly emotional Gilliland took his truck around in pursuit of Gragson on the cool-down lap, delivering a well-placed shot to the back bumper of Gragson’s truck before coming back to the pit lane and slamming his hands on his steering wheel several times in frustration.
After climbing out, Gilliland faced the media and said emphatically that he knew what was coming on the final lap.
“Yes,” said Gilliland when asked if he expected contact from Gragson. “I can’t thank everyone at KBM enough. They gave me an amazing Frontline Enterprises Toyota and I should never have let him (Gragson) get to me. I should have just given him the inside and maybe let him wreck himself. I don’t know.
“He has done that to me on five or six road courses in the past. It sucks,” Gilliland added. “We had the fastest truck and we didn’t win again. I’m going to have to talk to him for sure.”
To his credit, Gragson immediately owned up to the contact and took full responsibility.
“That one’s on me. I mean, we were racing for the win – it’s just my teammate,” noted Gragson. “I apologize to Todd. I apologize to the (No.) 4 team. I apologize to everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports. We’re in the playoffs and I was trying to get a win. I was squirting the throttle right there in between (turns) nine and 10, and I just wasn’t quite there (alongside Gilliland).
“It’s just unfortunate. That one’s on me,” Gragson reiterated. “I was just trying to get a little bit too much trying to win. Wins are so big here (in the playoffs). Mainly, I apologize to Todd and his team.”
How will the two settle their differences from Sunday, being teammates on the track?
“That’s just handled later. Right now, it’s just all about getting back and regrouping and focusing on Vegas,” said Gragson. “I wasn’t trying to take him out. I was just expecting him to give me a little bit more room on the bottom and it wasn’t there. It wasn’t meant to be. Just apologize to everyone.”
Gilliland, however, wished he could have used an approach similar to Cole Custer’s following the conclusion of the 2016 Truck Series event in Canada.
“I’d go fight him right now, but I can’t,” he stated. “I just need to get my emotions in check and go talk to him, but I’m extremely mad.”
