Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan primed for breakthrough

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Sunday's NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway is only one of 36 points races on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, but it is shaping up as a milestone race in one respect.

If Brendan Gaughan can qualify for the 250-lap race in this afternoon's time trials, it would mark the first time two Las Vegas natives have competed in the same Winston Cup event.

Gaughan, 26, was confident that he could join fellow Las Vegan Kurt Busch in the 43-car field for Sunday's race on the 2-mile oval.

"We tested there a few weeks ago and we were within what we wanted to be, next to Sterling (Marlin)," said Gaughan, who ran within two-tenths of a second of Marlin's fastest lap in testing. "That's a pretty good baseline to go off of -- what the points leader is doing. We think we've got a Dodge that's going to be able to make the show."

Gaughan said his goal is to qualify his No. 62 NAPA Auto Care Center Dodge "about 30th." There are 46 cars vying for 43 positions, but Gaughan will have to make the field on time (top 36) because his Orleans Racing team has no standing for a provisional starting spot.

Gaughan, a regular in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, has raced at California Speedway each of the past three seasons while driving in the NASCAR Winston West Series. He finished third -- behind Winston Cup veterans Ken Schrader and Johnny Benson -- in 2000 after qualifying seventh, and he won last year's race from the eighth starting position.

If he makes Sunday's race, Gaughan said his goals would be modest.

"In the race, I see no reason why we should lose a lap," he said. "We've been there just as much as anybody else, in a car where the only difference was a bigger spoiler. We won there last year and we had Kenny Schrader and Johnny Benson beat the year before and they taught me a lesson on restarts.

"We feel very confident that we can make the show and stay on the lead lap. Hey, if you stay on the lead lap, you end up, what, about 20th -- that sounds like a damn good goal to us. We're not going to try to set the world on fire, but our goal is to go out there and surprise some people."

Gaughan is 12th in points in the NCTS after three races and is coming off a ninth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway.

Busch, who is fourth in points, has one win (at Bristol) and three other top-10 finishes in the first nine races. He is coming off a third-place showing at Talladega Superspeedway.

Busch owns one win at California Speedway -- in the 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race -- and twice battled back from a lap down to finish 13th in last year's Cup race here.

"I had such a great run there in the Craftsman Truck Series, and last year I thought we would have had a better run than we did, but I think that this year may be more of our year," Busch said. "Last year, my experience racing in a Cup car was limited to only a few races, and this year I have an entire season of experience under my belt, which I think will help immensely.

"(Crew chief) Jimmy Fennig and I are also learning to work together really well and I think that all of his experience and knowledge will come into play in helping us deliver an even stronger finish than last year at California."

Busch is scheduled to make a guest appearance Friday on Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period."

Roush, whose condition was upgraded from serious to fair Wednesday, has been removed from a ventilator and is verbally communicating, the hospital reported. Roush was to be moved out of intensive care Thursday and into a private room to continue his recovery.

Citing "conflicts with other motor sports-related events," SCORE officials announced this week that they have moved the date of the year's Baja 1000 to the weekend of Nov. 20-23 -- the week after the Winston Cup Series concludes its season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Lazier suffered a fracture of the T12 vertebra in a two-car accident during the Firestone Indy 225 last Sunday at Nazareth Speedway. That injury, combined with a compression fracture of the L1 vertebra suffered in an accident in 2000, made surgery necessary, Dr. Terry Trammell of Indianapolis said.

Ray replaces Eliseo Salazar, who was injured in a testing accident last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Salazar underwent surgery to repair a torn vertebral artery in his chest and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

Henderson resident Richie Hearn drove in place of Salazar at last weekend's IRL event at Nazareth Speedway and finished 14th.

The team, owned by Las Vegas businessman Mike Petersen, raced in all ALMS events in 2001 but did not race earlier this year at Sebring and originally had planned to take a year off from racing.