With speculation running wild throughout the first third of the 2016 NASCAR season, Brendan Gaughan never said he was definitely going to retire, though many thought he would.
As the XFINITY Series heads into it’s first ever race at Pocono Raceway, the 40-year-old still hasn’t made up his mind.
Currently, the No. 62 Chevrolet sits fifth in the series standings, 40 points off point’s leader Daniel Suarez. Through the opening 11 races of the season, Gaughan has six top 10 finishes, with a best result of fifth at Talladega in May.
The Las Vegas native is thankful for the opportunity that he has with Richard Childress Racing and made it known that he wants this to be his last stint with an organization.
“I was so happy when I got here,” Gaughan said Thursday at Pocono Raceway. “I waited to long, honestly. I told Richard [Childress] that this is the last race team that I’m ever going to drive for and I’m having a great time being here. Whenever I do retire, whether it’s this year or not, I’m glad I ended up with Richard because this is home for me.”
With the Chase format, realistically, it gives Gaughan his best opportunity at a NASCAR championship. Known for his consistency, he is on his way of breaking a record he set last year of 14 top 10 finishes, a career-high for him.
In 2015, Gaughan competed in eight Sprint Cup Series events for Premium Motorsports with a best finish of 28th two times. The 17-year NASCAR veteran admits that he doesn’t plan on ever running another Cup Series event, but that doesn’t mean he is done in the XFINITY Series.
“Don’t plan on it,” Gaughan said of his chances of ever running in the Cup Series ever again. “I ran the first year of the Chase in 2004, when I drove Sprint Cup. For me, I know how to do this Chase racing, that’s big for me. This race team knows how to do it and a lot of these young kids will get experience doing it because there is no other format like that in the country no matter where you race.”
Rumors have had it all year long that this was Gaughan’s last season driving a racecar, but with the Chase format and still being competitive, circumstances may have changed.
John Hunter Nemechek has been on the radar of RCR, which could rule Gaughan out for a return to the series in 2017. One thing that he brings to a race team is full-time sponsorship, primarly filled by South Point Hotel & Casino.
“As long as I can stay up front and keep winning,” Gaughan said of how long he wants to race for. “If I can keep staying up front and running top five and Richard Childress Racing is winning races I want to stay here. If I can keep sponsors on the door then I want to race. When i can’t, I don’t want to be here.”
About the author
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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