Brendan Gaughan Earns 11th-Place Finish at Road America
Brendan Gaughan and the No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet team finished 11th at Road America, despite being involved in a late race incident on Saturday afternoon.
The Richard Childress Racing team started the scheduled 50-lap affair from the 26th position. Gaughan utilized restarts to gain valuable track position, advancing the South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet into the top-20 early in the event. After reporting a loose-handling condition in the right-hand turns to the No. 21 team, crew chief Shane Wilson called Gaughan to pit road under caution for four tires, fuel and a round of chassis adjustments to combat the handling issues. Gaughan continued his climb into the top-15 and was scored in the 11th position on lap 33. While running 11th, Gaughan was tagged from behind sending his black and gold machine spinning around in turn 12. He was able to keep the No. 21 Chevrolet from making contact with the wall and didn’t sustain any damage. Following that incident, Gaughan was forced to restart 27th with 14 laps remaining at the 14-turn road course. Multiple full-course cautions were displayed in the closing laps of the event forcing the NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers to two green-white-checkered attempts. Gaughan used the multiple restarts to advance through the field to the 11th position, where he crossed the finish line.
Start – 26 Finish – 11 Laps Led – 0 Points Position – N/A
BRENDAN GAUGHAN QUOTE:
“I’m really proud of the No. 21 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet team. The guys did a great job on pit road all day and gave me a really great race car. I love road course racing, especially here at Road America. It’s a great facility and the track is a lot of fun to race. We got caught up in an unfortunate incident in turn 12, but were able to use the restarts to gain track position and bring home a top-15 finish.”