Reinhold Matay / AP

Driving for an underfunded race team mired in the slow rebuilding process, David Gilliland has found that strong runs are hard to come by.

"There at the end, he was definitely impressive,'' said Gordon, a five-time Infineon winner. "He was good on the restarts. He would get in there, and I thought he was going to have something for Kyle there at the end. I think actually if all the (track cleaner) hadn't been on the racetrack, he might have.

"But David really impressed me. I was happy for him.''

Now Gilliland needs to build some momentum as he and Kvapil continue their efforts to make Yates a legitimate contender. Both cars still need sponsorship, and runs such as the one Sunday at Sonoma — Kvapil started 41st and finished 22nd — could help.

"We're in a sponsor search right now for a full-time deal, so hopefully this will help. We're just excited about it,'' Gilliland said. "This should help us build some momentum. We're going to use this; we're going to build this up.

"I'm just really proud, most of all, of Yates Racing and where we've come as a team — Travis and I both — in the six months from where we ended the year last year. Yates Racing is definitely coming back, and I'm proud to be a part of it.''