Atlanta: David Gilliland preview

Newest Cup Team Helping Lead Front Row Motorsports with Yates Racing
Gilliland and No. 38 Team Making Early Strides

Statesville, N.C. (March 2, 2010) - Welcoming sponsorship from Charter Air Transport this weekend, David Gilliland and the No. 38 Charter Air/Taco Bell Ford team head to the 1.5-mile Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500. Charter Air will adorn the lower hood and upper-rear quarter panels.

This will be Charter Air Transport's second time being a sponsor in the sport. The company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, specializing in 30-passenger turbo prop planes. They have been a carrier of teams in NASCAR for the past five years. They also service collegiate athletic teams and business professionals with their fleet of turbo props and jets.

"We're excited about where this team is heading," said Paul Kahalley, director of Jet Charter sales. "They contacted us and we were very excited about it. They are a team with great potential and we've formed a true partnership that we look forward to continuing to grow as the team does the same."

Gilliland and the No. 38 team are one of the newest in Sprint Cup competition but have already placed themselves in 31st in owner points. They are ahead of cars owned by Tony Stewart, Tad Geschickter and Robby Gordon - much more established teams.

Gilliland will be making his eighth start at the track in the Sprint Cup Series and has a best finish of 15th.

Comments from Charter Air Transport/Taco Bell Driver David Gilliland on Atlanta and Working with Crew Chief Randy Seals:

"This track is breathtaking. It's that fast, especially qualifying at night when the track cools down. There is no other track that gains that much grip at night. It's incredible and the speeds are, too. You have to take that into consideration when you are thinking about qualifying on Friday.

"It's one of the tracks I like. I get excited coming into the mile-and-a-half tracks, especially the ones like Atlanta, Charlotte and Texas. They are all fast and we put on good races. They are long, but the finishes are always close. We race on tracks like this so many times in the season that it's important to be fast and get good finishes.

"Hopefully we can take a lot of the notes that we learned in Vegas and transfer that over to Atlanta. I know we struggled a little bit, but I think we can learn from that. Randy (Seals) is a smart guy. This is a building process for everyone. Randy and I working together is a week-to-week thing. We both expect to get better.

"You have to build a notebook through the season and when you are a new team you don't have that. We are putting it together one race at a time. We didn't like the result at Vegas so we're focused on Atlanta. You take the good from Vegas and you use it. If we can do that, we'll be good at the end.

"It's nice to see Charter Air Transport on the car this weekend. I've flown on their planes in the past and they are a great way to travel. They have helped us out a bunch already in the early going. It's always nice not to have to worry about travel and how you are getting from one track to the next. They do a great job."

-source: front row motorsports