Long Gaughan: Veteran driver sets sail on young NNS guns to win Kentucky
On a night in which it looked like rookies Ty Dillon and Chase Elliott would battle for the win, veteran Brendan Gaughan used a bold move on the outside with six laps to go to take the lead and score his second NASCAR Nationwide Series win of this season and his career.
After a string of late-race cautions set up numerous restarts in the closing laps of the race, Gaughan patiently worked his way through the field as Dillon and Elliott battled at the front of the field.
As the pair of rookie drivers battled for the lead on the final restart of the night with seven laps to go, Gaughan slipped by on the outside to clear both drivers and take the lead as he brought the field to five laps to go.
"I love my restarts," Gaughan said in Victory Lane. "Shane Wilson (crew chief) taught me them 14 years ago. ECR (Earnhardt Childress Racing) and RCR get great horsepower, the RCR bunch gave me the transmission that I asked for, a little something different."
The win marked not only the second victory of the season and of his career for Gaughan, but his first on an oval. Gaughan scored his other win earlier in the season on the road course at Road America, where he went off track three times.
"It feels so good to get it done on an oval," he said. "It means a lot, especially the way we did it, driving by Chase Elliott and my teammate Ty Dillon. Great race teams, great young racecar drivers, but the old dog still has a little something left."
Gaughan's Richard Childress Racing teammate Brian Scott also slipped by Dillon and Elliott in the final laps to finish second, while Dillon finished third, Elliott was fourth and Regan Smith rounded out the top five.
The RCR cars were the class of the field for much of the night, finishing first, second, third and sixth with Cale Conley, a career best for the rookie driver. The victory marked the team's 70th Nationwide Series victory and fourth of the year. This was the first time RCR cars finished one-two-three in the Nationwide Series.
With the Nationwide Series racing a standalone event this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, the series regulars did not have to deal with Sprint Cup Series regulars crashing the show.
Instead, that honor went to Dillon, who led 155 of the 200 laps before finishing the night a disappointing third.
"This Nationwide Insurance Series is just tough," a dejected Dillon said on pit road. "Those restarts get tough. I thought the top was the way to go, and I spun the tires a little bit and they were able to get around us right before the caution came out at the end. That kind of put us behind.
All those cautions gave the guys, like my teammate (Gaughan), with four tires to get up to the front. It's just hard racing, man. I'm just sick for my guys. My Bass Pro Chevy was top notch. It's a good thing for confidence to lead all those laps, but this hurts for sure. Proud of my buddy Brendan, who did an awesome job. Proud of RCR/ECR, who were top three. We've had super fast racecars, just fell short. Man, this is tough."
The finish was equally disappointing for Dillon's rookie counterpart and current Nationwide Series points lead Chase Elliott. Looking to score his fourth victory of the season, the driver of the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet was regulated to fourth after his hard-fought battle with Dillon.
For Elliott, the wild late-race restarts made all the difference, as the battle for the lead allowed drivers like Gaughan and Scott to get huge runs from behind and use the side-draft to their advantage.
"Congrats to Brendan, though. It was cool to see those guys get the job done tonight," he said. "We were a little off, to be honest. We worked hard, I feel like everybody worked hard. Greg (Ives, crew chief) made some really good adjustments throughout the race.
"For nights where we're not 100 percent like we need to be, these are the nights we've got to have, to fight and give ourselves an opportunity. We had an opportunity in this race, unfortunately fell a little short."
Next week, the NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the one-mile high-banked concrete oval Dover International Speedway.
VIDEO: Eric McClure hits the wall hard during Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway
