Gaughan named top truck rookie

Friday, Nov. 15, 2002 | 9:37 a.m.

Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan on Thursday officially was named the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series -- an honor he all but locked up two months ago when he won his second race of the season.

Gaughan, 27, has nine top-10 finishes in 21 races and is 11th in the series points standings going into the NCTS season finale this afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"The Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award is a nice piece of hardware to take home," Gaughan said. "We had a good year. The Orleans Racing team has done a lot of truck races in the last couple of years and we had a lot of confidence going into the year."

Gaughan scored both of his victories at Texas Motor Speedway, in June and September, and joined fellow Las Vegan Kurt Busch and the late Kenny Irwin as the only NCTS drivers to post multiple wins in their rookie season.

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