JOLIET, Ill – In an XFINITY Series race dominated by its regulars, Brendan Gaughan had intentions of stealing the thunder from Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney in Sunday’s postponed Owens Corning AttiCat 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, but the Las Vegas, Nevada driver settled for fourth.
It’s was Gaughan’s first top-five finish since a runner-up at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway in Fontana in March and the second top-10 finish for the No. 62 South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet Camaro in the last three races.
“Fun day,” said Gaughan. “Shane (Wilson) and the guys had to do a ton of adjustments and a two-tire call to make up for the loss of track position because of all the things we had to do. And it worked out in the end. Not as good as we would like, but got to the front and came home fourth behind my teammate (Austin Dillon) and all RCR and ECR cars in the top-10.”
Gaughan qualified in the top-10 for the ninth time this season on Saturday, but had to wait to race his Richard Childress Racing car after storms rumbled the speedway shortly before its scheduled start Saturday night.
And despite a dramatic change in weather conditions, it didn’t seem to faze Gaughan or his racecar. The 40-year old driver fell out of the top-15 just once during a cycle of pit stops, but rallied back when it counted most to net his second top-five run of the year. He led four of the 200 laps Sunday, which became the race for the most lead changes in an XFINITY Series race in the Windy City.
It was a solid day for the Welcome, North Carolina-based team. Pole-sitter Austin Dillon finished third while his brother Ty finished behind Gaughan in ninth.
With his seventh top-10 of the season, Gaughan rose to eighth in the championship standings, sitting 109 points behind point’s leader Chris Buescher.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series takes a week off before kicking off a grueling stretch of 15 consecutive races that will end with Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in October.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
