Riding in Nextel Cup not a priority for Gaughan

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 9:19 a.m.

One year ago this week, Brendan Gaughan was the toast of his native Las Vegas as one of three local drivers competing in the annual NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This week, having lost his Cup ride after one year with Penske-Jasper Racing, Gaughan said he isn't sure he'll even make it over to the Nextel Cup garages. Not even to look for another Cup ride.

Gaughan said he plans to stay busy building trucks at his Orleans Racing shop, which is located in the industrial park behind the LVMS main grandstand, in preparation for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race next Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Gaughan and Steve Park are the team's drivers this season in the Truck Series.

"I don't even know if I am going to go through the garages," Gaughan said. "The Orleans team is going to be working all weekend. If I make it to the garages, it's not a priority. If I do though, I'm going to go there with a big old smile because I get to show all those guys that ... we're actually having fun."

Gaughan, who has committed to running 18 truck races this season, said trying to find a ride in the Nextel Cup Series is not among his priorities these days.

"It would have to be a really big deal right now," Gaughan said. "To get me away from the Orleans team right now, it's going to have to be something pretty darn big -- and I've had some pretty good offers."

After a winless season in 2004, Park earned the team's first victory two weeks ago at California Speedway and is sixth in the Truck Series points.

MODEST GOALS: Kyle Busch is not going into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Nextel Cup race at LVMS with unrealistic expectations. While winning a race on his hometown track would the ultimate experience, Busch has more realistic goals.

"I'd like to qualify somewhere in the top 20 and hopefully finish somewhere in the top 15 and just have a good, solid day," said Busch, who is the leading contender for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award.

"For me, I wouldn't say that we're going to go out there and set the world on fire right away. We just have to work on our P's and Q's and start crossing our T's and working on dotting our I's. It's going to be a big deal on trying to get comfortable with the car and get comfortable with the long races and working with the Nextel Cup Series veterans."

Busch, who took over for Terry Labonte in the No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, will be sporting different colors on his car Sunday. In conjunction with Friday's opening of the movie "Robots," Busch's car will carry a nuts-and-bolts paint scheme promoting the 20th Century Fox film.

REMOTE CREW CHIEF: Ricky Rudd's crew chief, Michael "Fatback" McSwain, will call Sunday's race for Rudd from the comfort of his living room.

McSwain, who is recovering from corrective back surgery, will use cutting-edge technology from Nextel, Racing Radios and nascar.com's "TrackPass" to relay instructions in real time from his Mooresville, N.C. home to a team engineer and Rudd.

The team used the same remote setup two weeks ago for the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

SPEED STAGE: Fans attending this weekend's events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be able to watch live tapings of several of the Speed Channel's NASCAR shows. The Speed Stage will be set up outside of the track near Turn 1 and spectators are welcome to attend the shows, which run throughout the day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.