Brendan Gaughan wanted better than a 23rd place finish out of his visit to Phoenix International Raceway but after a late race spin he realizes things could have ended worse.

With Phoenix relatively close to the team headquarters in Las Vegas, Gaughan and crew were spared their customary long journey from home and arrived at the 1.0-mile speedway raring to go.

Gaughan clocked in 26th fastest during Friday’s midday qualifying session and then could do nothing but wait around and see how his race truck would respond under the lights that evening.

A long green flag run through the middle of the 150-lap event along with a blistering place set by the leaders put half the field down a lap, unfortunately that included Gaughan in the No. 77 Dodge.

With 30 laps to go Gaughan was racing in tight quarters after a restart when his Jasper Engines Dodge broke loose. Gaughan’s quick reaction to the spin cost him just a handful of spots in the running order but more importantly it saved his truck from suffering any costly and time-consuming damage.

Gaughan was able to make up those positions in the closing laps and was scored with a 23rd place finish, one lap behind the leaders.