DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: It wasn’t the cleanest race for NASCAR Cup Series veteran Brendan Gaughan in his final Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway start, but somehow, someway the Las Vegas, Nev. native sneaked through the late-race carnage to earn a top-10 finish in his final start at the “World Center of Racing.”
While having a competitive No. 62 Beard Oil | South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet Camaro, Gaughan was able to recover from back-to-back pit road speeding penalties within three laps of each other in Stage 2.
Restarting 34th and trapped a lap down, Gaughan was able to use pit strategy to his advantage to work his way back onto the lead lap – and into contention.
Working his way back through the field, he was inside the top-25 by Lap 152. Escaping two late-accidents that yielded two red flags, Gaughan was able to restart 11th for the green-white-checkered finish and climbed inside the top-10 on the final lap of the race.
After finishing seventh in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, the 44-year-old claimed eighth at the checkered flag in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 – after starting last.
Gaughan thought he had a shot at a better finish, but his momentum was stalled by Martin Truex Jr. coming to the checked flag, denying him his second career Cup Series top-five run.
“The Beard Oil Distributing Chevrolet Camaro had a heck of a run tonight,” said Gaughan. We saw pay dirt there at the end – third place coming out of turn four. The 19 car just side drafted us and pulled us back. I didn’t have any help behind me but what a night. I just have to say thank you so much to the Beard family, Darren Shaw (crew chief) and Ron Lewis, my spotter.”
With their effort at Daytona, Gaughan is one of only four drivers who finished in the top-10 in this year’s Daytona 500 and the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The other drivers were Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher.
Two top-10 in four starts this season is impressive for a skeleton crew like Beard Motorsports, but Gaughan said the help of Richard Childress and ECR motors contributed to the success of the Mark Beard-owned team.
“I also want to say thank you to Richard Childress and ECR motors for all they do for us,” offered Gaughan who earned his eighth career top-10 finish in 66 starts. “Two top-10s this year at Daytona – what a way to go out. It was so much fun.”
Gaughan is scheduled to make his final NASCAR Cup Series start of the year at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 4 with the same race car he used at Daytona Saturday night.
“We will see everyone in Talladega and we’ll actually be able to take the same race car because it’s in one piece,” he said.”
The 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway is the site of Gaughan’s career-best finish in NASCAR Cup Series competition in 2004 with a fourth-place finish driving for Doug Bawel.
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