Gaughan wins in thrilling finish at Road America
June 21, 2014
By Jerry Bonkowski
NASCAR Wire Service
ELKHART
LAKE, Wisconsin – Brendan Gaughan survived two early off-track
excursions and a race in which much of the second half was contested in
rain as cars rode on wet weather
tires to win Saturday's Gardner Denver 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series
race at Road America.
It was
the third time in NASCAR history – all on road courses and all on the
NNS circuit – that a race has been run in rain. The other two were in
Montreal in 2008 and 2010,
also on a road course (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve).
Racing
in the rain ignited something in Gaughan that helped overcome and forget
his early misfortune and go on to earn his first career win on the
Nationwide circuit in 98
starts (he also has eight career wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series).
"I love
racing in the rain, it's fun," said Gaughan, who was in the 2010
Montreal race, and has driven in rain several other times in other
series. "And when you're good at
it, it makes it even more fun.
"I
haven't smelled blood in a long time, that's something I've been lacking
lately, that killer attitude. When it started to rain, even without the
wiper blade (was broken),
I started to smell blood and said, 'I'm coming.'
"It's fun to watch guys who haven't done it in the rain. They don't understand the rain line, and fortunately for me, I did."
Gaughan passed Chase Elliott for the lead on Lap 51 and held on for the two remaining laps to win.
Gaughan
beat runner-up Alex Tagliani by .820 seconds in a green-white-checkered
finish that took the race to 53 laps, three more than the scheduled 50.
It appeared it would
be Tagliani's race to win, as he was leading in the closing laps when
he ran out of fuel on lap 49.
Just
seconds before, a caution flag was thrown when Justin Marks also ran out
of fuel. Just past the pit entrance when his car stopped, Tagliani was
able to roll his car down
the downward sloping frontstretch, his crew pushed him into his pit
stall, he took on fuel and switched from rain tires back to slicks and
proceeded to roar through the field, restarting 23rd and ending up
second three extra laps later.
Such a tough defeat might be hard for some drivers to swallow, but Tagliani took the loss in stride.
"It was
pretty intense," Tagliani said. "The wet was tricky, but obviously we
were good. Maybe I threw a bad spell on myself because I said it was
impossible that I was going
to win this race, like something's going to happen, and then on the
white flag, something happened (ran out of gas).
"It's
what it is. It's not in the cards. You have to be quick, you have to
have a good car and it has to be in the cards, and if it's not, you just
have to take whatever comes
to you."
Tagliani
came into the race hoping to be the fourth driver to win from the pole
in the last five NNS races at Road America, but came up one spot short.
The
race was put under caution on Lap 25 and NASCAR mandated all cars switch
to wet weather tires two laps later. They remained on rain tires until
the final four laps, when
teams had the option to switch back to slicks after Marks brought out
the caution.
Kevin O'Connell finished third, followed by Chase Elliott and J.J. Yeley.
Sixth through 10th were Jeremy Clements, Andy Lally, Landon Cassill, Elliott Sadler and Mike Bliss.
Of note
about Cassill: Not only did he compete in Saturday's race, he hopped a
plane afterward to the west coast to be in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350
NASCAR Sprint Cup race
at Sonoma Raceway.
NOTES:
Regan Smith, who finished 13th, retained his lead in the NNS points
standings. Elliott Sadler (finished ninth) is second in the points, 10
points behind Smith, while
Chase Elliott remains in third place (11 points back). The only drivers
to make upward movement in the points in the top-10 were Brian Scott
(sixth to fifth) and Cassill (11th to 10th).
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