Gaughan beats heat, finishes 6th

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 9:49 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Brendan Gaughan's most miserable day in a NASCAR Nextel Cup racecar also was his most memorable.

Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, earned a career-best sixth place in Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway and then had to pay a visit to the infield care center to be treated for heat exhaustion.

The temperature flirted with the 100-degree mark for much of the 250-lap race -- and reached 180 in the cars -- and the heat took its toll on Gaughan, who said he also suffered blisters on his "tailbone area."

"Anybody that wants to say that racecar drivers aren't athletes, they can come talk to me," Gaughan said. "It was hot in that car. It's a tough sport and nobody can make fun of anybody from first to 43rd in this series; these are professional athletes and they prove it each week out there."

Gaughan, who started a career-best fifth, ran with the leaders for much of the race and was in third place before the last round of pit stops with 50 laps remaining.

Gaughan was running sixth when Bobby Labonte, who was in fifth, ran out of fuel on the final lap. Gaughan said he made a mistake on the track on the white-flag lap that allowed Labonte to beat him to the finish line by several feet.

"I had Bobby Labonte beat (for fifth) by that much," Gaughan said, holding his hands 2 feet apart. "(My crew) told me Bobby ran out of gas and that I could get him so I drove down the back straightaway as hard as I could and drove into turn three and I just overdrove the corner.

"It cost me 15 feet and all I needed was two. I messed up. I wish we would have got a top five -- I'm a greedy dude."

The race marked the third in a row in which Gaughan posted a career-best finish. Two weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway, Gaughan finished 17th and he followed that with a 13th-place effort last week at Talladega Superspeedway.

"Each week, we're getting better finishes. We were sixth and the top Raybestos Rookie and there's no better place to do it than the West Coast.

"I've got to thank my (crew) because they work hard for me and I never gave up on them, but I did get a little tired on them. These guys are feeling pumped up, the confidence is growing and our whole plan is starting to work."

Gaughan climbed from 27th to 22nd in the Nextel Cup points standings with his sixth top-20 finish in 10 races this season.

Gaughan, 28, got his start in off-road racing but said the heat during Sunday's 3-hour, 38-minute race was more intense than he ever experienced in desert racing.

"I've had heat exhaustion in an off-road race before -- the Baja 1000 -- but it's very hot on you and it's beating down on and you dehydrate yourself," Gaughan said.

"Here, it's so hot physically, it soaks into you and it zaps you of energy while you're trying to run out there."

Gaughan was not the only casualty of Sunday's Southern California heat wave. California Speedway president Bill Miller said close to 1,000 fans were treated in first aid stations for heat-related ailments.