Tough Day for Brendan Gaughan and the No. 33 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet Team in Las Vegas
Early contact with the wall resulted in a 36th-place finish for Brendan Gaughan and the No. 33 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With confidence building throughout the race weekend, the Las Vegas native qualified in the 23rd position for the 267-lap main event and continued the trend with a strong pair of practice sessions on Saturday. Unfortunately, just eight laps into the Kobalt Tools 400, the No. 33 Chevrolet made contact with the wall, damaging the right side of the car and knocking the radiator ajar. Crew chief Gil Martin called Gaughan to pit road to allow the team to repair the damage and, in the process, lost a number of laps to the leaders. Although Gaughan and the South Point Hotel & Casino team battled throughout the remainder of the event and were able to regain speed in the Chevrolet, they were not able to regain all of the lost laps and ultimately finished the race in the 36th position. Gaughan returns to the No. 33 South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet next week at Bristol Motor Speedway for his third of four races in the RCR car.
BRENDAN GAUGHAN QUOTE:
“We had a really strong South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet and I appreciate how hard Gil (Martin) and the guys worked on it all weekend. I got in the wall early on and really put us behind. I’m learning more and more about these cars every week and I can’t wait until next week at Bristol (Motor Speedway).”