Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Las Vegas success may pay big for Gaughan

Friday, Oct. 8, 1999 | 2:29 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089

Brendan Gaughan is moving closer to landing a sponsor that will allow the Las Vegas native to run a full NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season in 2000.

Gaughan originally had planned on running a full Winston West Series season and eight truck races next year, but his strong showing in last month's Winston West and truck races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway brought potential sponsors out of the woodwork.

"Nothing is settled, but a lot more has happened," Gaughan said. "Doing well in both races, even though we didn't finish well in the trucks with a 24th-place finish, we still ran with the seventh- and eighth-place trucks once we got our problems fixed. That helped us a lot, a lot of people noticed that we ran right up there with them.

"We had some sponsors talk to my father that night and they stayed for the Winston West race and even more people came up to talk to us after the (third-place finish in the) Winston West race. We have a lot more options than we originally had."

Gaughan, 24, said he has one sponsor lined up that will allow him to run about a third of the truck season, but he did not rule out the possibility of running a full season. The cost to properly run a truck team for an entire 26-race season is approximately $3 million.

"There still are some thoughts about running a full season of trucks," Gaughan said. "We've got a lot of (potential sponsors) that came to us ... and if some of those pan out, then we'll most likely have enough money to run next year, full-time. That's what I'd like to do."

But Gaughan insisted that he would not run a full season in the Craftsman Truck Series on a shoestring budget.

"Right now, it's a money matter and we don't have the money yet to do it full-time. But give us a little bit more and we might be able to make it," he said. "If you're going to do it, you've got to do it right; we're not here to do it cheap."

Gaughan said he had planned to run his Orleans Hotel & Casino Chevrolet truck in the season finale Oct. 30 at California Speedway in Fontana, but instead will drive in the final CORR off-road race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 1/2-mile dirt track that weekend.

"We'd like to run Fontana but the problem is that the off-road CORR race is the same weekend. That's hometown and that's off-road and that's where I came from originally and that's tough to turn down," he said.

"The CORR race is Walker (Evans') farewell race in the off-road and we'd like to be there. I've spent a lot of time with Walker and that team, they taught me everything I know so far, so it will be nice to be there for that one."

* NASCAR: Scott Pruett, a 10-year veteran of the CART series, will drive the No. 32 Tide Ford for team owner Cal Wells in the Winston Cup Series next season.

Pruett, who lives in Lake Tahoe, currently drives for Wells' CART team, Arciero-Wells. Pruett will compete in CART's two remaining races this season (in Australia on Oct. 17 and the season finale in Fontana on Oct. 31) before turning his attention to Winston Cup. ...

NASCAR officials fined Winston Cup driver Tony Stewart $5,000 as the result of an incident following an accident during the running of last Sunday's NAPA AutoCare 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

After several bumping incidents with Kenny Irwin, Stewart was spun out by Irwin and hit the wall. After Stewart climbed out of his car, he threw an object at Irwin's car as it circled the track then tried to get at Irwin through the passenger-side window. ...

NASCAR also upheld the penalty notice to NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crew chief Randy Goss of Roush Racing, who was fined following the Orleans 250 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 24 for using an unapproved intake manifold on race winner Greg Biffle's truck.

Although team owner Jack Roush said he had documentation to prove that NASCAR had previously inspected and approved the manifold, the National Stock Car Commission upheld a fine of $46,860 against Goss, along with the team's loss of 120 championship points.

* CART: Two new versions of the rear-wing Handford Device have been adopted for eight events of the 2000 FedEx Championship Series season.

The Handford MkII Device, which will have high- and low-downforce versions, will be instituted for races at all small and intermediate ovals and one permanent road course.

According to designer Mark Handford, the devices are expected to create enough additional drag to reduce the need to downshift on the ovals, thereby reducing the potential for accidents. It also should improve the cars' overtaking ability on the short and intermediate ovals.

The high-downforce version will be utilized at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway; Nelson Piquet International Raceway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; The Milwaukee (Wisc.) Mile; Chicago Motor Speedway; and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.

The low-downforce version will be used at the Miami-Dade Homestead (Fla.) Motorsports Complex, Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan, and Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. ...

Mario Andretti took his first spin around the Hawaiian Super Prix racetrack at Kalaeloa Airport last Friday and proclaimed the 1.67-mile circuit among the smoothest in the FedEx Championship series.

"It's about as smooth as a pool table," he said. "I think it will be a very interesting racetrack because there are several areas where drivers will be able to take different lines. Because of that, there will be some racers who will really love this course and others whose driving style it won't favor."

The on-again, off-again Hawaiian Super Prix is scheduled to be held Nov. 11-13 and will feature the top 12 drivers from the FedEx Championship Series, plus four invited drivers. The race features a $10 million purse, with the winner taking home $5 million.

* IRL: Six drivers -- Greg Ray, Kenny Brack, Sam Schmidt, Scott Sharp, Scott Goodyear and Buddy Lazier -- remain mathematically eligible to win the IRL championship at the season finale Oct. 17 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Of those six, Sharp has the best average finish (3.0, with one win) in the three previous races held on the 1.5-mile track. Brack's average finish is 6.0 (with no wins) and Schmidt's average finish is 8.7, with a win in the most recent race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* BACKMARKERS: Kurt Busch, who will compete at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's 3 / 8-mile paved oval Saturday night in a 60-lap Grand American Modified open competition race, is one of a handful of drivers being considered to replace Mike Bliss as the driver of the No. 99 Roush Racing entry in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Busch, 21, has won the last three NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series races, tying Dan Press' and Rick Carelli's series record for consecutive victories.

Besides the Grand American Modified race, Legends and Bandoleros will compete. Gates open at 5 p.m. with races starting at 7. ...

Tickets still are available for this weekend's THQ U.S Open motocross event at the MGM Grand Garden. The U.S. Open, the world's richest motorcycle race, features the top AMA Supercross riders in the country competing for a $300,000 purse, with $100,000 going to the overall winner.

Last year's U.S. Open sold out long in advance, but event promoters say tickets starting at $40 per day are available at the MGM Grand Box Office and through TicketMaster.

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