Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Racing three-wide at Daytona shakes up Gaughan

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 11:27 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.

The Sun's weekly NHRA notebook will return next Thursday.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Brendan Gaughan learned firsthand Wednesday what it is like to run three-wide at Daytona International Speedway.

And he wasn't sure whether he liked it.

Gaughan, the Las Vegas native who will start 18th in Friday's Florida Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, continued to gain speed and clicked off a top lap of 191.693 mph in his NAPA Dodge truck.

"That's fast," Gaughan said. "It's not that it's too fast, but I'm sure there are people who wish that it wasn't me out there doing 191 miles an hour and being a rookie out there.

"I got three-wide for the first time and it got a little dicey. I was just hanging on until (the other trucks) got by me. I was still a little shaky when I got back to the pits."

Gaughan said Wednesday was not the fastest he had driven on a racetrack -- just the first time he had done it so fast with trucks on either side of him.

"Fontana is faster than this place," Gaughan said, referring to the California Speedway. "We were running 204 miles an hour entering Turn One in the Winston West car -- but you go down to 160 miles an hour in the corner.

"Here, if it says a 193 (mph) average, there's only a six mile-per-hour change from high speed to low speed. That means 195 is the top speed and 190 is the low speed. That's not a lot of speed variation and that's dang fast for the whole way around the track."

In the afternoon session, when the speeds generally were slower, Busch was 21st fastest at 186.955 mph. Bill Elliott was quickest in the afternoon session with a top lap of 188.596.

Bobby Hamilton also planned to use a backup car in today's qualifier.

"The Bill Simpson lawsuit is totally without merit," the statement read. "We will vigorously defend ourselves against his false allegations."

Simpson claimed that NASCAR officials defamed him by blaming Dale Earnhardt's death on a broken seatbelt that was made by Simpson Performance Products. Simpson has since left the company he founded.

Danny Lasoski, the reigning World of Outlaws champion, will start second in the 12-car field. Sterling Marlin, Helio Castroneves of the IRL and Kevin Harvick round out the top five starters.

Al Unser Jr., Buddy Lazier, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart, Jack Sprague and 2001 IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. will start sixth through 12th, respectively.