FOURTH PLACE GOES TO GAUGHAN
Milwaukee…Deftly piloting his No. 62 NAPA/Orleans Dodge, Brendan Gaughan earned a fourth place finish and top Raybestos Rookie honors at the GNC Live Well 200, June 29 at the Milwaukee Mile.
"Our Orleans crew gave me a great piece today," said Gaughan, who ran as high as first during the 200-lap/200 mile NASCAR Craftsman Truck race. " This is the same truck we ran at Memphis a couple of weeks ago. We had a test day on Thursday and any time we test, we tend to do really well, especially when we're at a track for the first time and this was a new track for us."
Qualifying in 10th, Gaughan immediately began to work his way up through the pack. "This is a cool track," he said, at the end of the race. "It's definitely a driver's style track. You have to drive it in and dance it around the middle. It's not perfect at any time because there's no banking to help you, but I definitely liked racing on it."
Making the first pit stop under green, Gaughan took on fuel and four tires. "The guys did an awesome job on our NAPA Dodge in the pits, said Gaughan. "They just get better and better every race. On our second and final pit stop, my crew chief Shane Wilson made the call to just take on two rights. As I've said before, he makes the call and I never doubt him. Those two tires actually held us on to third until we got the last yellow."
A few laps before the end, the caution flag came out and Coy Gibbs managed to squeeze past Gaughan, taking over the Number three spot.
"We got that last yellow and Gibbs raced us hard," explained Gaughan. "I happened to be in the unlucky spot on the high side and I had to slow down a little more. We were really running great, hitting 31.000 second laps, but after the yellow we went to a Green-White-Checkered finish and there just wasn't enough time to get past Gibbs."
The race marks the sixth time, Gaughan has earned Raybestos Rookie honors and
going into Round 10, he holds a 35-point lead. "While our fourth place finish
this past weekend didn't move us up in the overall point standings, it has
given us a stronger hold on our tenth place and once again we gained in
Rookie points. We're not that far out of fifth and hopefully we can move up
in the next round."
