Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan likes his chances in Friday’s truck race

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003 | 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.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Brendan Gaughan of Las Vegas likes his chances in Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway -- but not because of his qualifying effort on Tuesday.

"We built this Dodge truck with drafting in mind," said Gaughan, who qualified 11th in his Orleans Hotel Dodge with a speed of 180.930 mph. "We built this truck to be much tighter in the draft, run more stable and make me more comfortable.

"If it qualified 11th, then we know it's going to race in the top five."

Jason Leffler captured the pole for the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 with a speed of 182.994 mph. Robert Pressley was second fastest at 181.973 and gave Dodge the top two starting positions.

Leffler, who won eight poles last season, still is searching for his first NCTS victory.

Gaughan won two races last season and was the NCTS Rookie of the Year. He said he wanted to step up his qualifying efforts this season.

"We want to qualify in the top five most of the time and try to sneak in a few poles," he said. "Eleventh is not bad for Daytona -- Daytona is one of those places where you just do how you do and go on from there."

The accident was triggered when Winston Cup rookie Jack Sprague tapped Skinner from behind, sending Skinner spinning. Burton, Sadler and Steve Park also got collected in the ensuing melee on the front stretch.

Although Sprague said Park started the incident by hitting his right-front fender, three of the other drivers involved claimed Sprague was at fault.

"(Skinner) was blending in and I guess (Sprague) didn't see him and just absolutely ran into the side of him," Sadler said. "We're supposed to be professionals and using our heads and they're out there running into the side of each other on the straightaway.

"There's not much common sense going on."

"This was a 24-year-old in the pressure-cooker of NASCAR and we felt like it would be helpful for him to manage relationships better," Roush Racing general manager Geoff Smith told the Associated Press.

NASCAR fined Busch last May after he said in a television interview that he intentionally caused a wreck in The Winston all-star race to bring out a caution flag. He also was penalized during the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July for cursing NASCAR officials over his in-car radio.

Busch said the seminars helped him learn to "approach people in a different manner and understand different scenarios."

Gordon received 17 first-place votes and 440 points in NASCAR's first "Preseason Top 10." Reigning champion Tony Stewart is ranked second with seven first-place votes and 375 points.

Ryan Newman is third in the poll, also with seven first-place votes, and Kurt Busch is fourth despite receiving nine first-place votes.

Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rusty Wallace rounded out the top 10.

The interview, conducted by Katie Couric, will air Friday at 9 p.m. on the NBC program "Dateline NBC."