Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.
Brendan Gaughan has heard the trash talk from other competitors in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
After Gaughan earned his third consecutive Truck Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this summer, the talk centered on his ability to win races only at the 1.5-mile superspeedway; his first three career wins came at Texas.
Gaughan and his Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing team went out two races later and won on The Milwaukee Mile. Three races after that, Gaughan won at Gateway International Raceway and the following weekend, posted a dominating victory at Michigan International Speedway -- giving him four wins in the past seven races.
His recent success, however, apparently hasn't silenced his critics and now Gaughan is on a mission as the series heads to Indianapolis Raceway Park Friday night for the Power Stroke Diesel 200.
"When somebody said something that upset (crew chief Shane Wilson) and myself a little bit, we went out (to Michigan) and had to show them that these guys on this team are that good," Gaughan said, refusing to go into specifics of what was said. "It's nothing that needs to get into detail ... it's just something that hurts you in your heart when it gets said and you say, 'That's fine ... people can think those things.'
"We just have to go prove we're the team we are because of hard work."
While stopping short of predicting he would win Friday night's race at IRP, Gaughan said that he and the Orleans Racing team plan to use the race to make a "statement."
Gaughan said. "We're going to go there very, very upset and prove to some people that it doesn't matter what track it is right now; our ducks are in a row.
"My crew chief is making great decisions, my body guys are building great trucks, my engine guys are giving me the best horsepower possible and my pit stops (are great)."
Although Gaughan is tied with Travis Kvapil for the series points lead going into the race, Gaughan said he won't be "points racing" this week.
"It's not a points weekend this weekend; this weekend is go out there and we want to look like we did (at Michigan) at IRP -- after that, we'll go back points racing," said Gaughan, who ran away to an 11.477-second victory over Ted Musgrave last Saturday at Michigan.
While Gaughan's recent surge to the top of the Truck Series standings may have caught some of his competitors off guard, he said his team's success is the result of five years of working together.
"It's really not that sudden," Gaughan said of his success. "If you look at it, in 1999, I finished 13th in points in the Winston West Series and we assembled a fantastic team in the Winston West. In 2000, we points raced and we won a points championship. We only won two races, but we were up front every weekend.
"The next year, 2001, the guys had been together, we had jelled, and we won (six) races and the championship that year. We ran some Craftsman Truck races and we started getting our first top 10 and then we started getting our first top five.
"You go to 2002, it was our first time running that many (truck) races. We learned a lot, we won Rookie of the Year, got some top tens, got our first win.
"Now you come to 2003, it's the natural progression of things. When you get a team together that has that much ability and that much talent -- from the kid who sweeps the floor to (engine builder) Kevin Kroyer and the engineers who help design and build the motors -- it's just too much talent; there's too many great people there.
"To us, it's not all of a sudden; to us, it's natural progression."
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