Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan lands truck ride for next year

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 11:27 a.m.

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

Brendan Gaughan is expected to be named to replace Scott Riggs as driver of the No. 2 Ultra Motorsports Dodge for the 2002 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, the Sun has learned.

According to a well-placed source in the truck series, an announcement is expected soon. The No. 2 Team ASE-sponsored truck is considered one of the top rides in the NCTS.

In 17 races this season, Riggs has posted a series-leading five victories in the Dodge truck and is the current NCTS points leader. Riggs has posted 12 top-five finishes and has finished out of the top 10 only four times in 17 starts.

Riggs is leaving the truck series at the end of this season to compete in the NASCAR Busch Series.

Gaughan, a 26-year-old Las Vegas native, would not comment Thursday on the speculation. But in an interview with the Sun when his name first surfaced last month as a possible candidate for the ride, Gaughan said it would be hard to turn down a fully funded ride with one of the top teams in the series, if it were offered to him.

Gaughan, who began off-road racing in 1991 and won the first race he entered, currently is running a full NASCAR Winston West Series schedule as well as a handful of truck races. In his five 2001 truck starts, Gaughan has three top-10 finishes, including a second at Texas Motor Speedway in June and a third at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., in March.

In his most recent truck series outing, Gaughan started 27th and finished 10th at Chicago Motor Speedway.

Gaughan, a Bishop Gorman High School and Georgetown University graduate, is the defending Winston West Series champion and is leading the 2001 NWWS points standings with three races remaining.

Gaughan would become the second native Las Vegan to land a full-time ride in a major national racing series. Kurt Busch was hired by team owner Jack Roush to drive in the truck series in 2000 and went on to win a rookie-record four races, finish second in the final points standings and capture Rookie of the Year honors. He now is a rookie in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

Kyle Busch, Kurt's 16-year-old brother, has competed in two truck series races this season and also could be in line for a full-time ride with Roush Racing next season.

Schmidt has hired former CART driver Alex Barron to drive the No.99 Dallara/Oldsmobile in place of Jaques Lazier, who quit the team last week to drive for Team Menard. Schmidt will team with co-owner Ray Parsons to field a second car for Anthony Lazzaro.

Barron drove in six races last season for Dale Coyne Racing in the CART FedEx Championship Series and posted a career-best finish of eighth at the season finale at California Speedway.

Rahal's departure from Jaguar came after he clashed with former F1 champion Niki Lauda, who was brought in earlier this year as chairman of Ford's Premier Performance Division, which includes Jaguar Racing. Lauda was appointed today as Rahal's replacement.

Rahal reportedly will receive a severance of about $5.8 million to settle the remainder of his three-year contract with Jaguar.

ASA and TNN agreed to a deal in January 2000, giving the network a 25 percent ownership of ASA and five years of exclusive broadcast rights. Viacom International acquired TNN when it bought CBS Cable late last year and has been scaling back its motor sports involvement.

TNN published the 2001 ASA ACDelco Series broadcast schedule in October 2000, indicating all 20 scheduled events were to be aired live, but the network now wants to pre-empt races in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 3, and Clermont, Ind., on Sept. 29.

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Aug. 30 in Madison County (Ind.) Superior Court.

Ganassi's teams captured CART's Motorola 220 at Road America with rookie driver Bruno Junqueira and the NASCAR Winston Cup event at Michigan International Speedway with Sterling Marlin.

The accomplishment allowed Ganassi to join Roger Penske as the only team owners to do the CART/NASCAR double on the same race weekend -- but Penske has done it a phenomenal 10 times.

Local Late Model racer David Quartaro, who received a one-year ban last November from competing at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for unsportsmanlike conduct, has been suspended for one race and placed on probation the remainder of the 2001 season at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway for basically the same reason. ...

The 2001 THQ U.S. Open, the world's richest motorcycle race held Oct. 12-14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, will be taped for broadcast on ESPN2 on Sunday, Nov. 11.