Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan’s dad: Having team in LV hard

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 9:37 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.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Winston West The Orleans 150 At Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Friday

4 p.m. Spectator gates open (free admission)

4-6 p.m. Winston West practice

7-8 p.m. Driver autograph session (ESPN Zone at New York New York hotel-casino)

Saturday

Noon Spectator gates open

Noon-1 p.m. NCTS Practice

1:15 p.m. Winston West qualifying

2-3 p.m. NCTS Practice

4 p.m. NCTS qualifying

5:45-6:45 p.m. NCTS final practice

7 p.m. Winston West driver introductions

7:30 p.m. Winston West The Orleans 150 race (100 Laps)

Sunday

Noon Spectator gates open

1:30 p.m. NCTS driver introductions

2 p.m. NCTS Las Vegas 350 race (146 Laps)

By almost all accounts, Brendan Gaughan is having an outstanding rookie season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The 27-year-old Las Vegas native has two victories, five other top-10 finishes and is running away atop the Rookie of the Year standings.

Orleans Racing team owner Michael Gaughan, however, can't help but wonder if his son might have enjoyed even more success this season had the elder Gaughan not elected operate the team out of Las Vegas.

"If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have run this team out of Las Vegas," Gaughan said as his son prepares to run in both Sunday's NCTS race and Saturday's NASCAR Winston West race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "It's just too hard on the (crew) ... the guys get tired with all the travel.

"It's more expensive to base a team in the West and it's more inconvenient. I lose a day (of work) with my people every week because most of the race crew also work in the shop and I lose travel days with them. If I was in North Carolina, I could probably get a day's more productivity out of my people."

That's not to say the team owner is unhappy with his driver's performance, although both father and son said they expected to contend for the series championship. With four races remaining, Brendan Gaughan is 11th in NCTS points.

"I wish we were up in the top ten but we had a slow start," the elder Gaughan said. "Part of the slow start was that we started (the season) racing on tracks that we had never been to.

"We've got two wins and I think with Vegas, Phoenix and Fontana (remaining on the schedule), we might pick up one more win because now we're racing on tracks that Brendan has raced on several times in both cars and trucks and we have notes on these tracks."

It also hasn't helped that Orleans Racing has lost several key members of its two-time Winston West championship team to Ray Evernham's Winston Cup operation.

"Ray (Evernham) took two guys out of my (race) shop and two guys out of my engine shop," Gaughan said. "I told him the next guy he has to take is Brendan. I thought by being out here they couldn't find my help to steal but I was wrong about that; they'll sniff out good people anywhere."

As for the future of Orleans Racing, Gaughan said he has no plans to continue as a team owner if Brendan moves up to either the NASCAR Busch or Winston Cup Series.

"He'll move up without his daddy," Gaughan said. "I'm not going any higher than trucks. I don't have time (to be a Busch or Winston Cup owner) and that takes serious money."