Brendan Gaughan just loves racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. Unfortunately his most recent visit to the high-banked short track was just way too short.

Gaughan and the No. 77 crew had reason to be optimistic about their chances at victory after the first practice sheet ranked the Jasper Engines and Transmissions Dodge seventh fastest overall.

As the day worn on, however, the competition began to catch up with them and when qualifying was all said and done Gaughan was 31st on the starting grid and suffered the added handicap of a backstretch pit stall.

Pit stall location became a non-issue in a heartbeat when Gaughan was the victim of someone else's wreck less than 20 laps into the race.

The altercation broke out just ahead of Gaughan on the backstretch and when he checked up to avoid contact another truck drove into his rear end and sent him headlong into the inside wall.

As much as Gaughan would have loved to spend more quality time on one of his favorite racetracks, the damage to the nose of his race machine was just too extensive and the crew was forced to pack it in for the night.

Instead of celebrating his first victory of 2005, Gaughan settled for 35th, his worst finish of the season to date.

“I need to stop being so nice to people,” Gaughan growled shortly after crew chief, Tony Liberati determined that the Jasper Engine Dodge was done for the night.

“It was my own fault,” Gaughan added. “It was my own fault for qualifying back there (in the 31st position) and it was my own fault for being so nice to people. Both of those issues will be addressed in the future. We can’t have these finishes and reach our goals for the Jasper Engines Dodge this year.”

Gaughan will enjoy some much needed rest and relaxation during the upcoming off weekend and then get back to action on September 8th under the lights at Richmond International Raceway.