Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gaughan denies he’s on the hot seat

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 9:45 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's fourth-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway provided a much-needed boost in what has turned out to be an admittedly disappointing rookie season.

Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, is 30th in points and has an average finish of 26th -- including Sunday's effort -- in 29 races this season. But he dismissed speculation that he needs to perform in the final weeks of the season in order to protect his job with Penske-Jasper Racing.

"Everybody has to have something to write about," Gaughan said of published reports that have him on the hot seat with the No. 77 Kodak team. "Kodak is really supportive of the Penske organization as is (team co-owner) Doug Bawel and the Jasper folks.

"(The media) are the only guys that want to write it. The rest of us have been excited; we knew we've been getting better. That is the best superspeedway car out of the Penske shop and I think we proved it. We got a nice top-five and the top rookie (in the race) for a change."

It was the first top-five finish for Gaughan in 29 Nextel Cup races and his first top 15 since he finished sixth in the Cup race at California Speedway in May. Gaughan, who qualified 26th for Sunday's race, led twice for seven laps and was in front on the final restart with five laps remaining.

LABONTE'S PLANS: Terry Labonte has called a press conference for next Tuesday to announce his future racing plans.

It is believed that Labonte will announce his intention to run a limited schedule in 2005 and 2006 in the No 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, which could open the door for Las Vegas native Kyle Busch to move up to the Nextel Cup Series next season.

CHARGING BACK: The Dodge Charger, which won 124 NASCAR races from 1966 to 1977, will return to the Nextel Cup Series in 2005, replacing the Dodge Intrepid, DaimlerChrysler officials announced Monday.

A Charger has not appeared in a NASCAR premier series race since Nov. 20, 1977, when Neil Bonnett won the season-ending Los Angeles Times 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California.

Dodge has been fielding the Intrepid in the Nextel Cup Series since the automaker's return to NASCAR competition in 2001 following a 16-year absence.

BODINE WINS: Todd Bodine followed his runner-up finish Sept. 25 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a victory in Saturday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at California Speedway.

"This is just only our fourth race together -- with Germain/Arnold Racing and Toyota -- and it can't get any better than this," Bodine said. "My Tundra was just awesome all night long.

"Last week, we felt like we should have won the race (in Las Vegas) when we finished second. To finish second last week, and then come back and win this week, is pretty gratifying."

It was the third victory for Toyota, which is in its first season in the Truck Series; Travis Kvapil won the other two.

BACK-TO-BACK: Scott Lynch of Las Vegas earned his second consecutive NASCAR West Series victory in Sunday's Subway 150 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Lynch, the reigning series champion, led a race-high 91 laps -- including the final 48 -- en route to his sixth career West Series victory. He remained sixth in points but closed to within 151 points of series leader Mike Duncan with three races remaining.

Former Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher qualified 14th in the same race and was running in the top 10 until she dropped out of the race due to electrical problems. Fisher finished 21st in her NASCAR debut.