Compton topples qualifying record

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 9:53 a.m.

It was hard to tell who was happier following Thursday's qualifying for this evening's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Orleans 250 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- Stacy Compton or Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan.

Compton captured the pole with a track-record lap of 161.803 mph (33.374 seconds) and earned a nifty bonus prize from his truck manufacturer while Gaughan qualified 12th at 159.301 mph (33.898) in his fifth career NCTS start.

Besides the $1,000 Bud Pole Award, the 32-year-old Compton will take delivery of a new Chrysler Hemi engine as a result of winning his series-leading sixth pole of the season.

"I told Dodge earlier in the year, 'that's one hell of a Hemi,' and Ted Flack from Chrysler said, 'give me six poles and I'll give you one,' " Compton said.

Compton said he didn't think he had a prayer of capturing the pole Thursday evening after posting the fifth-fastest time in the final practice session.

"We were not quite where we needed to be and we got together with the rest of the guys and rolled the dice and came out with a good setup," Compton said. "We changed everything but the steering wheel right before qualifying; we changed all four shocks, all four springs and both sway bars."

Compton also was on the receiving end of some good fortune. He was the next-to-last qualifier to take to the 1.5-mile track and just as he did, the sun slipped behind a cloud, which may have cooled the track just enough to give his No. 86 RC Cola Dodge a little better grip on the racing surface.

"It looked like everything we did helped, it looked like everything that happened helped," Compton said.

Mike Bliss will start on the outside of the front row after qualifying at 161.527 mph. Joe Ruttman, who won the 1997 truck race at LVMS, was the third-fastest qualifier at 160.471 mph.

Series points leader Greg Biffle will start on the inside of the third row while defending race winner Jack Sprague will start alongside Biffle in row three.

Gaughan may have been even more excited about his career-best 12th starting position for this evening's 5 p.m. race than Compton was about winning the pole.

"We'll take that," Gaughan said. "We're excited, we're definitely happy with 12th. It was a heck of a run and we ran pretty hard. The only time I'm ever happy is when I know I didn't leave anything on the table and I was as close as I think I could be to not leaving anything on the table."

Gaughan, who has logged more than 20,000 laps at LVMS as an instructor for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, said he used a tip he picked up from NASCAR Busch Series driver Randy LaJoie during his qualifying lap in the No. 20 Orleans Chevrolet.

"I told (my crew) I think I'm the only guy to drive on the apron during qualifying and that was a little trick I learned from Randy LaJoie a couple of years ago," he said.

Gaughan will be driving one of the new trucks his father, Michael, purchased from Chesrown Motorsports earlier this summer when Chesrown decided to close its truck operation. He said a top-10 finish tonight is not out of the question.

"All we have to do is do like we have done the last couple of races," said Gaughan, who posted a second-place finish in a NASCAR Winston West race two weeks ago. "All I have to do is listen to my spotter (Randy Anderson), don't get in a wreck and make my way around the wrecks.

"If we bring it home in one piece, hopefully we can keep the Orleans truck somewhere near the front of the pack and maybe we can finish top 10."