Picture owned by Orleans Racing Driver: Brendan Gaughan

Owner: Michael Gaughan

Event: O'Reilly 200
Memphis Motorsports Park - Memphis, Tenn.
Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 8:15 p.m. (EDT)
Qualifying: Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 4:30 p.m. (EDT)
0.75-mile oval, 150 miles/200 laps

Notes of Interest:

Sometimes a driver’s feelings about a venue don’t match reality. Memphis Motorsports Park is one of those places for driver Brendan Gaughan. Ask Gaughan about Memphis and he doesn’t have fond recollections of the place --- or at least the race track because he loves the tourist amenities of the area. But when talking about the track he’s never optimistic.

Gaughan on Memphis:

YOU’VE HAD A 13TH AND AN 8TH in your two starts here: “Really? A top 10? That surprises me. I’ve always done horrible there. For some reason I’ve felt that that track has never been that good to me. I’ve spun out and I’ve hit things. Rambo and I talked about it right after Kentucky. We’ve been making fun of each other. His first Busch race with the Herzog Motorsports team was at Kentucky and of course Rambo joined us and had to go to Texas and Michigan and Milwaukee and all these places that I had track records at and have won. So I asked Rambo and he said, ‘How did you do at Memphis’? and I said, ‘Horrible.’ I said, ‘How did you do at Memphis’? and he said, ‘Horrible.’ So he and I think we’re going to do well since we’re going to be at a track that we can’t brag about.

“It’s a fun little town. Sam’s Town is near and that’s part of the Boyd Gaming Group, so we’ll probably be visiting Sam’s Town at some point that week. Then of course you have Beale Street, which is in my opinion the best thing about the Memphis track. After a tough day I can do down to Beale Street and we can have a party.”

ARE YOU AN ELVIS FAN AND HAVE YOU SEEN GRACELAND? – “I’ve not seen Graceland but you know I grow facial hair quite rapidly and a couple years ago I grew the actual Elvis chops and bought the glasses and showed up and got my man Rick Crawford to do the Elvis voice. I just look like him. I can do the look. It only takes me about four days to grow the chops.”

Meet the Crew:

Name
Hometown
Shop Duties
Race Day Duties

Brendan Gaughan
Las Vegas, NV
General Manager
Driver

Tony Liberati
Bellaire, OH
Crew Chief
Crew Chief

Lance Wilson
Bakersfield, CA
Truck Chief
Rear Tire Changer

Roy Pryor
Las Vegas, NV
Mechanic
Front Tire Changer

Chris Boller
Prescott, AZ
Truck Driver
Front Tire Carrier

Calvin Gravely
Martinsville, VA
Tire Specialist
Jackman

Scott Witz
Tucson, AZ
Fabricator
Gas Man

Mike Robinson
Toole, UT
Mechanic
Catch Can

Clint Jennings
Logan, OH
Engineer
Engineer

Listen in on the #77: The team’s primary radio frequency is 451.3375.