Brendan Gaughan Pre-Race Report - Atlanta

Driver: Brendan Gaughan
Owner: Michael Gaughan
EasyCare 200
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race: Saturday, October 28 – 5:15 pm
Qualifying: Saturday, October 28  – 1:15 pm
1.54-mile oval, 200.2 miles/ 130 laps
 
Notes of Interest: This week the Orleans Racing team is proud to have Ms. Valerie Chapman as their guest. Her late husband, TSgt John "Chappy" Chapman, an Air Force Combat Controller, was killed in action on March 4th, 2002 during the Battle of Takur Ghar on Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. Also killed in action on Operation Anaconda was Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, a Pararescuemen -- making this the first time in history that a CCT and PJ were killed in action on the same combat mission. Chappy’s and Jason’s heroic actions made it possible for many of the Special Operations team to survive the battle. For their extraordinary heroism, both were posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross which is second only to the Medal of Honor as an award for valor.

Military Appreciation Program (MAP): The Green Feet with Lightning Bolt comes from the U.S. Air Force’s Pararescue (PJs) and Combat Control (CCT) career fields. The feet's lineage comes from the Vietnam era H-3 Search and Rescue helicopter that became known as the Jolly Green Giant. Crewmembers, including PJs, adopted “green feet” as their unofficial logo. The lighting bolt was derived from the CCT official emblem that includes a “lightning bolt” -- representing CCT’s quick reaction and communications capabilities.

In 1987 PJ and CCT students began training together in the arduous Indoctrination Course at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. The students wanted a logo that represented both of these two heralded specialties. So, they merged the Green Feet and Lighting Bolt together and adopted this as the unofficial symbol of what is known today as Special Tactics – CCT and PJs working together in unison.

The Piece: Gaughan will drive Orleans Racing’s T-15

The Stats:

Atlanta Motor Speedway - Truck Series
Date	Start	Finish	LC/TL	Status	Winnings
18-Mar-05	DNQ
29-Oct-05	31	15	130/130	Running	$11,015
17-Mar-06	32	13	135/135	Running	$10,715
Atlanta Motor Speedway - Cup Series
Date	Start	Finish	LC/TL	Status	Winnings
14-Mar-04	25	33	314/325	Running	$63,120
31-Oct-04	25	18	323/325	Running	$85,225

 
GAUGHAN ON ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Atlanta is an exciting place for anyone to run. We all know that the Craftsman Truck Series has the best racing in NASCAR right now and when we come to Atlanta it’s not different. It’s still a really fast place. The fun part is you can run low and you can run high. It doesn’t matter. You can run on the bottom and you can run on the top. Anytime we’re racing at a track like that you know where the No. 77 and Brendan Gaughan will be. We’ll be right up against that wall. We’re taking a truck that we like a lot to Atlanta and saving Lonestar for Texas. We’ve got to try to get back in the top five for these last four races and show what we can do a little bit better.

“In the spring we had a wreck right at the end of the race and Rambo was screaming, ‘Back up! Back up! Back up! You’re not at the start/finish line yet!” Then there was the famous race to the finish between Bobby Hamilton and Mike Skinner. Atlanta Motor Speedway is definitely a spectacular track and the Craftsman Trucks always put on a spectacular show.”

Listen in on the #77: The team’s primary radio frequency is 451.3371.