Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan credits Orleans crew for first truck win

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 9:47 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.

Brendan Gaughan will be the first one to admit that any success he has enjoyed in racing is the result of surrounding himself with good people.

That fact was never more evident than when Gaughan won Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the first career NCTS victory for the 26-year-old Las Vegas native.

"The Orleans (Racing) crew gave me an incredible truck," Gaughan said. "I just drive; they do all the work.

"On that last long run, it was an easy truck to drive."

Gaughan took the lead on lap 109 of the 167-lap race after taking on just two tires during the final caution period. Gaughan went from third to first by beating Rick Crawford and Travis Kvapil, both of whom took on four tires, out of the pits.

Gaughan credited crew chief Shane Wilson with making the call to take on two tires instead of four to gain track position.

"I'm pretty much a non-technical driver," Gaughan said. "I tell Shane what I feel and the rest is up to him. He made the call to just take on two tires at the end and that was fine with me.

"Whatever Shane says, I do. Looking back at it, it was an easy call because we were so loose on four cold tires and full of fuel. I didn't think anything of it at the time ... we didn't think it was that risky of a call."

Gaughan not only held off challengers Kvapil, Rick Crawford and David Starr during the final 53-lap run, he was able to pull away and cruise to a relatively comfortable 2.364-second victory.

"I got a little worried about fuel there toward the end, but our engine builder, Kevin Kroyer, came on the radio and told me I was OK," Gaughan said.

"He has built every motor I've raced since I was 15 years old. Once again, I'm not a technical guy so if Kevin says don't conserve, I don't conserve."

Gaughan also credited Tom Mount, who prepares the truck bodies at the Orleans race shop in Las Vegas, with giving him "the most balanced" truck he said he had ever driven.

The win came in Gaughan's 24th career NCTS start and was the first ever by a non factory-backed Dodge team. The Bishop Gorman High grad became the first rookie to win a truck race this season and climbed to ninth in the series standings.

Gaughan said he was not surprised that his first win came so early in the season. Friday's race was the seventh of 22 races on the 2002 NCTS schedule.

"I thought -- being the eternal optimist that I am -- that we were going to go win (immediately)," Gaughan said. "Shane, who's a little more of a realist, didn't think we would win until August -- and we did it somewhere in the middle.

"Are we surprised it came this early? No. Do the guys deserve every bit of that win? Oh, yeah. A lot of Saturdays and Sundays went into that (win); we all worked hard for that win."