Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Burned Sunday, Gaughan still open to deals

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | 8:59 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 may have been burned by a deal he made with a competitor late in Sunday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Bakersfield, Calif., but he said that won't stop him from making similar deals in the future.

Gaughan was leading at Mesa Marin Raceway when, on the final restart of the race, he allowed the lapped truck of Travis Kvapil to pull ahead of him and get back on the lead lap. At the same time, however, second-place Dennis Setzer followed Kvapil to the lead and Jon Wood later passed Gaughan for second place. Setzer drove away for a 1.216-second victory over Wood.

Gaughan drives a Dodge truck in the series; Setzer and Kvapil drive Chevrolets.

"I'm not going to stop making deals," Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, said after posting his second consecutive third-place finish. "Deals have worked real well for us in the past. Ted Musgrave has given me my lap back more than anybody in the series.

"It's all because of how you race them; if you race them clean and you race them honest, you'll get stuff like that."

It is unlikely, however, that Gaughan will make another deal with Kvapil anytime soon.

"That's why some teams don't ever get their laps back and get taken care of -- because they do things like that," Gaughan said. "(Kvapil) made a deal with (Setzer), so it wasn't like he broke (his deal with me); he just made a deal with a manufacturer and that deal superseded my deal.

"Let's face it; it worked. Dennis got the win and he would have probably got us anyway (because) he was very fast."

Gaughan had the highest finish by a Dodge driver, finishing ahead of NASCAR veterans Bobby Hamilton Sr. (fourth) and Ted Musgrave (fifth), and moved up one spot to third in points.

"We were the top Dodge again and anytime you can be better than Ted Musgrave and Bobby Hamilton, you've done something," Gaughan said. "I finished third again (and) if I finish third the rest of the season, we'll have a championship."

Petty will follow up with an examination this week by his personal doctor, a Petty Enterprises spokesman said, and should be back in the No. 45 Dodge this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

"He's very sore," crew chief Steven Lane said of Petty. "He hit pretty hard, so you would expect that. But he should be ready to go at Texas this week."

Earnhardt will pilot the No. 83 Aaron's Dream Machine Chevrolet that is being fielded by FitzBradshaw Racing, Earnhardt's NASCAR Busch Series team. The car is co-owned by Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.