Gaughan wins at LVMS, but work isn’t done

Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 8:59 a.m.

The 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship just may be decided at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Although the series doesn't visit the local short track, series leader Brendan Gaughan planned to spend today testing on the 3/8-mile oval to prepare for the final five races of the season.

Thanks to his victory Saturday night in the Las Vegas 350 at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Gaughan and his Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing team hold a 67-point margin over Travis Kvapil and a 100-point lead over Ted Musgrave.

Unlike Kvapil and Musgrave, Gaughan did not come up through the short track ranks. With two of the final five Truck Series races being held on short tracks, Gaughan and his crew chief, Shane Wilson, know the championship could hinge on Saturday's race at South Boston Speedway and the Oct. 18 race at Martinsville Speedway.

Wilson said that the team's success on the bigger tracks -- all five of Gaughan's victories this season have come on tracks larger than one mile -- would allow them to take a more conservative approach to the two short-track races.

"We've run really well on mile-and-a-halfs this year; I'm not going to say (the remaining schedule) favors us, but I feel more comfortable going to those tracks," Wilson said. "It makes it so that when you got to South Boston and Martinsville -- you still have to race hard -- but we'll be a little more conservative than the guys that are 50 points behind us.

"But we need to get out of those (two) races with decent finishes."

That's not to say that Gaughan has struggled on the short tracks this season. Although he may lack experience on the shorter tracks, Gaughan has five top-10 finishes in six short-track races this season.

Gaughan said he doesn't know if the schedule favors him in the final five races, but he said he has one thing going for him.

"Momentum," Gaughan said. "Momentum is a big deal -- I've learned that in basketball, football ... in every sport, momentum is huge. The Orleans team is not infallible but we have great momentum right now.

"We feel very, very comfortable with the Dodge trucks that we're bringing to the next bunch of races and we feel very comfortable with the way the team is handling."

Gaughan, who was a walk-on basketball player at Georgetown University under then head coach John Thompson, said he didn't want to hear any talk about being conservative at any of the remaining races.

"We don't want to change a thing," Gaughan said. "That's one thing John Thompson taught me years ago: You have to play the same way you practice. You don't change how you practice and you don't change how you play, but you put the rest of the team in (when you get a big lead).

"This is a deal where there is no other team -- there's only one team and it's not like we have a 50-point lead here -- in basketball terms. (The 67-point lead) is more breathing room, but it's not over by any means. We have to go the same way we have; try to go out there and get a top five and see if we can't get a Dodge that can win."

Gaughan will have one less thing to worry about as the season draws to a close. Prior to the race, Gaughan was told my representative from Dodge that the manufacturer would continue to back Orleans Racing in the Truck Series.

Two weeks ago, Gaughan said he was unsure if he would remain with his father's team next season if Dodge pulled its technical and financial support.

"We got a deal signed with Dodge now -- not signed, but we have a deal in principle with them and we're excited," he said. "It's a multiyear deal, which is exactly what I've wanted. There was no way I was going to leave these guys in limbo and not know what would happen.

"Now that I've got a multi-year deal with Dodge, it means that I can come back and run the Craftsman Truck Series next year, be confident and drive the wheels off the thing and hopefully a Winston Cup owner will come and say they want to give me something and that way I know my Orleans Racing team isn't going to disappear and fade into the background; they're going to keep trying to win championships."