Brendan Gaughan Pre-Race Report - Charlotte

Gaughan Ready for "Wicked Fast" Lowe's

Driver: Brendan Gaughan
Owner: Michael Gaughan
Event: Quaker Steak & Lube 200
Lowe’s Motor Speedway
Race: Friday, May 19 – 8:45 pm
Qualifying: Friday, May 19 – 4:15 pm
1.50 -mile oval, 201 miles/134 laps

Notes of Interest:

On his way to Charlotte, NC Brendan Gaughan visited his favorite track, Texas Motor Speedway. Gaughan’s visit had him sharing “driving tips” with 16 PGA golf pros. The program, “Drive For Show”, had Gaughan giving driving tips to the golfers --- and the golfers tried to give their driving tips to the four-time TMS winner. The event was lots of fun for all involved, however Gaughan left TMS still needing a great deal of work with his golf game.

Gaughan on the “Drive for Show” program: “It was neat --- and it looked like the golfers enjoyed it. A couple of them were pretty darned good in those race cars. I heard a couple of the guys on their first lap bumping off the chip like they were comfortable and ready to go. Who could drive better them or me? I think they won the driving contest because my driving prowess was not very impressive. They all tried to help and they all failed just as miserably as Cheeseburger (Gaughan’s good friend, John Kaufman) did over the past 15 years. I’m going to claim the broken shoulder blade or the broken wrist. A racing injury is why my swing just doesn’t work.” (laughing)

Military Appreciation Program (MAP): This week’s “patch” features the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

The A-10 and OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs are the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces. They are simple, effective and survivable twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against all ground targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

The primary mission of the A-10 is to provide day and night close air combat support for friendly land forces and to act as forward air controller (FAC) to coordinate and direct friendly air forces in support of land forces. The A-10 has a secondary mission of supporting search and rescue and Special Forces operations. It also possesses a limited capability to perform certain types of interdiction. All of these missions may take place in a high or low threat environment.

The A/OA-10 aircraft was specifically developed as a close air support aircraft with reliability and maintainability as major design considerations. The Air Force requirements documents emphasized payload, low altitude flying capability, range and loiter capability, low speed maneuverability and weapons delivery accuracy. The aircraft is capable of worldwide deployment and operation from austere bases with minimal support equipment.

More on this impressive fighting vehicle can be found at:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/a-10.htm

The piece: Gaughan will drive Orleans Racing’s T20.

The Stats:

Lowe's Motor Speedway

Date
Start
Finish
LC/TL
Status
Winnings

2003
9
2
136/136
Running
$29,675

2005
36
8
136/136
Running
$9,225

Gaughan on Lowe’s:

“This is the Mecca of NASCAR. When you come to Charlotte for every other team except the Orleans Race team this is home. For the Orleans Team it’s just another track on the east coast. It is however one of those tracks that notoriously I’m pretty good at. I like the big tracks. I like the feel of these places. I’m hoping with the new pavement and some of the things that I heard from my buddies at the Nextel Cup test it’s probably going to be a driving style that suits my style just fine.

“The boys in the shop and the fab shop have been working hard. And our body guy back east, AJ has been putting it down for us. Hopkins (Chassis) has also been working really hard for the Orleans team. We’ve been to the wind tunnel twice since Atlanta.

“This is Rambo’s first ground up truck --- truck No. 20. It is a brand new Hopkins chassis with a brand new AJ body on it. It’s been to the tunnel and it’s got the best numbers we’ve ever seen. It beat out our previous best, truck No. 15. We really want to go there and run well. We felt we were a top-10 truck at Atlanta. We passed 78 vehicles. We finished just outside the top-10 but that was because of the war of the race. This week we want to prove we’re back in the top-1o at least working on those top-fives so we can get ready for Texas, which we know is a very important track to me.”

On the Resurfacing of Lowe’s

“If I was still a rookie I might say it’ll make all of us the same on the track. As a veteran I’d say hopefully I’ve been around longer and can adapt faster. For me Charlotte is still Charlotte. You know it’s going to be wicked fast. With this new pavement and the new Goodyear tire they’re not wearing out very fast which means there will probably be a lot of slipping and sliding going on. It just means who adapts the fastest will do well here. Traditionally I’ve been able to adapt to new tracks very well and we just got to get the Dodge up to speed as fast as possible.”

Meet the Crew:

Name
Hometown
Shop Duty
Race Day Duty

Tony Liberati
Bellaire, OH
Crew Chief
Crew Chief

Lance Wilson
Bakersfield, CA
Truck Chief
Front Tire Changer

Danny Goad
Martinsville, VA
Mechanic / Tuner
Rear Tire Changer

Clint Jennings
Logan, OH
Engineer
Rear Tire Hanger

Jacen Johns
Springfield, MO
Mechanic
Front Tire Hanger

Calvin Gravely
Martinsville, VA
Tire Spec / Fabricator
Jack Man

Bill Caldwell
Culver City, CA
DOT
Fuel Man

Steve Fiedler
Yankton, SD
Truck Driver
Catch Can

Mike McNeal
Corapeake, NC
Truck Driver
Ice System Control

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