Brendan Gaughan, driver of the No. 20 Orleans Chevrolet, daily account:
Day 2 (Second Report):
Pacific Time: 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19
Japan Time: 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 20
"We qualified second. We probably could have been on the pole, but after all of the crashes in qualifying we all eased up. We just wanted to get in the race. In happy hour once again we had 50-lap old tires and were against guys who had fresh tires and were running faster. We have a great car and great motor. I think we are going to be quick.
"You can’t count Mike Wallace out. He has been very quick. Mike Chase is one of the smartest guys out there, and he should have a chance at winning. Austin Cameron and I have been trading second and third all weekend. Then Ron Barfield and Andy Houston are here. Those guys know their stuff and should be contenders.
"The Walker Evans team set me a really good car. This is the car we ran in Vegas. We have a good chance to be there in the end. That is the key. We have to be there in the end.
"In qualifying, Kevin Culver crashed, and Sammy Potashnik crashed. Sammy broke his left foot and is still going to drive. They went and borrowed Butch Gililand’s backup car. It is the car Butch crashed in Las Vegas. The whole right side is flat, but I am sure they will get it fixed in time. Hideo Fukuwama also crashed in qualifying. He borrowed Joe Bean’s backup car. Dean Kuhn crashed in practice, and I am not sure if he is going to make it.
"On a Vegas note, Wayne Jacks qualified 23rd, and Doc Faustina will start 27th. Doc is the last official qualifier on time. Also, Wayne, the Austrailian that works for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, is the crew chief for Kim Jane, the leading Australian qualifier.
"Sean Woodside qualified 18th. They are just going for the championship. They are not the fastest car right now. They are not going to try to go faster than they can and crash.
"There are two Japanese drivers in the top ten. One dude qualified fifth. He is supposed to be the hot shoe in Japan. He is supposedly the best driver in Japan. He raced at Irwindale and had the big fire on pit road. He did a great job in qualifying and is really quick.
"NASCAR is teaching some Japanese people how to tech the cars. That is kind of neat. They do the templates and everything.
"As opposed to last year where they tried very hard to accommodate us but didn’t have American-style food, this year they have done a great job. They have served, steak, prime rib, lasagna and spaghetti. They are making a big effort, which is making this hungry little American boy very happy.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are cooked at the track. They have a big tent, and they cook each meal. In 20 minutes I will go in there and they will have scrambled eggs. The bacon is broiled so it looks raw. It is actually rather good. They are trying hard. They had buffalo wings for lunch yesterday.
"A couple of the fans have come by and remembered me from last year with the big fire. A lot of them speak at least a little bit of English. They make an effort to say hello. I can say hello, good morning and thank you for coming in Japanese. I got a couple of Japanese things down.
"The toilets are always fun. The showers are cool. We are staying at a really nice hotel. We are at the track, so we are out in the middle of the country. We don’t really have much to do at night. Some of the other guys are actually in town. The only problem is an hour and a half bus ride to and from the track each day. They are in the city, so they have a Denny’s, McDonalds and night clubs.
"We have a 5 minute bus ride down to the track. We could walk if we wanted to. They have closed circuit television of the track in our room. They have a screen with timing and scoring. So last night I could look at the final practice times. It is very modern. They call it contemporary-American styling. They have ESPN, but it is in Japanese. I watched the Stanford-UConn game, and they do show some of Sports Center. We have an English newspaper delivered to us every morning. But we are here for one thing. We go to the track at 7 a.m. and come home at 7 p.m. We are here to race.
For more on Brendan Gaughan and the race at Motegi check the Las Vegas Motor Speedway!
