Brendan Gaughan Earns First Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Victory at Road America
Brendan Gaughan and the No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino team had a strong Chevrolet Camaro all weekend in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., qualifying fifth for Gardner Denver 200. The Las Vegas-native faced many challenges at the 14-turn road course, first collecting debris from sliding of the track on lap seven. By lap 17 Gaughan battled his way back to the second position. His second challenge came when the rain began. The Richard Childress Racing team’s windshield wiper would not function, crew chief Shane Wilson decided to gamble and not repair, but instead wipe the windshield down with Rain-X. When the full course caution fell on Lap 39, Gaughan came down to visit his No. 62 RCR team for four tires, fuel and to wipe down the windshield once again. Restarting in 16th position, the 38-year-old veteran battled up through the field and by Lap 44 was fourth. Gaughan had taken over second-place when the final caution fell on lap 50, resulting in a green-white-checkered restart. Restarting first after the leader ran out of fuel, Gaughan found himself fighting to maintain the lead with one lap to go. Gaughan held off the opposition and earned his first victory in 98 Nationwide Series starts. He earned his third top-10 of the season and remained seventh in the driver point standings, 43 points behind sixth-place as the team goes to Kentucky next Friday night.
Start – 5th Finish – 1st Laps Led – 8 Points – 7th
BRENDAN GAUGHAN QUOTE: “I can’t thank Richard Childress and Shane Wilson enough. I tried to give this race away three times today, I was fully embarrassed and not focused enough, but RCR gives us great equipment and my team did not give up on me. This is such a great feeling after all the years of trying, we did it. I am so happy I don’t even know how to put it into words.”