Brendan Gaughan Post Race Quotes - Charlotte

BRENDAN GAUGHAN – No. 10 Int’l MAXXFORCE Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd)

"Chad McCumbee and congratulations to Matt Crafton. He deserves a win so much and to watch two young kids, Crafton and Chad go at it. I told Chad, I said, ‘If you could have just hit him one more time.’ We made a great run at it. That’s a brand new Circle Bar Ford from our shop. Curt and the guys in the fab shop built it. It’s been to the wind tunnel and did all the stuff with it. I’m so proud of all those guys. Thanks to Rick Crawford for bringing me here and Ford for taking the chance, and the Maxx Force guys. Man, I haven’t had this much fun in years. My dad smiling on the pit box, this is just like old times. We can do this every week. Me and Rick, top five, we’re gonna start making some headway."

DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A CHANCE ON THE LAST RESTART? "Absolutely. Gator does my transmissions here and years ago a man named Dwayne Knorr kind of helped me on my restarts. Gator builds them for me just like I had them and we were great on restarts. I love it and I had a chance. They both did a good job. They had a little bit better truck tonight, but they started banging and I thought I had a chance. That’s what a green-white-checker is all about."

"It was a heck of a night. We qualified 29th and I wasn’t worried about it one bit. Bryan Berry and the Circle Bar guys build me race trucks and not qualifying trucks. We knew we had a decent piece, but it’s a long night. It’s a battle. Bryan came in for some adjustments and from there it was just keep driving. The guys had great pit stops. We did a two-tire stop under green and kept us on the lead lap and did a great job just trying to hold onto it. I’m just proud as all can be of my guys on pit road. They did such an outstanding job, and then we brought home a brand new Ford F-150 in third and Rick Crawford right behind him in fifth. You can’t knock that for Circle Bar. The top two Fords and I was just rooting for Chad and Matt to bang one more time. If they hit each other one more time, I had a chance but I’ve got to say a huge congratulations for Matt Crafton. I’m extremely proud of him and excited for him and it’s been a long time coming."

IS THIS YOUR BEST FINISH HERE? "No, I finished second in 2003 to Ted Musgrave, but it’s my best run here in a very, very long time."



RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by Int’l Ford F-150 (Finished 5th) – "How about that? A third-place finish and to come from where we were in practice with this Ford F-150. Ford Racing – Drive one. I enjoy it week in and week out and I’ve been doing it for a long time. How about this finish? Look at the big picture. Chasing down the point leader. He didn’t have such a good night tonight and congratulations to Matt Crafton, a guy that’s been racing in the series almost as long as I have and tonight his first win here at Charlotte. But a top-five finish for the Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International team. What a night. Kevin Starland told me in qualifying. He said, ‘Now I can fix it.’ In practice we had a tough time, but he said, ‘Now I can fix it,’ and he did and it ran some good, fast laps all night long."

DID YOU THINK THERE MIGHT BE ONE MORE WRECK AND YOU AND BRENDAN WOULD HAVE BATTLED FOR THE WIN? "Yeah and I could have probably just asked him to move over and win the thing. No, Brendan Gaughan is a great race car driver. I was glad to have him as an addition to my team. He just fits in perfectly. His guys have been working on that truck. This was a brand new truck they had tonight and to have a top three with it says a lot for the Circle Bar Racing team, along with the Maxx Force Diesel."