Gilliland's car

The car David Gilliland will be driving in this weekend's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at California Speedway is the same one the team took to Michigan International Speedway a few weeks ago. It was the same one that was fifth fastest in practice when the team unloaded and the same one that he crashed and didn't make it to the end of the race.
This will be Gilliland's third Cup race with Robert Yates Racing in the No. 38 Ford and his third race with crew chief with Todd Parrott.
Even though they have yet to finish a Cup race together, Gilliland said he is confident the car they are bringing to California Speedway will be fast and competitive.
"These people that are saying Robert Yates Racing is down, they're this or that. They're none of that," said Gilliland, a driver from Riverside who raced at Irwindale Speedway and other Southern California tracks while on the Southwest and West Series. "We're where we need to be. We're getting closer."
Parrott said he expects Gilliland to make mistakes and he hopes the mistakes will be fewer as the season winds down.
"The first two races have been tough, but that's what we expected coming in here," Parrott said. "We're going to have our good days and we're going to have bad days. I think the biggest thing is his learning curve is going to be sort of steep."