By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Following Saturday’s XFINITY Series race at the Charlotte ROVAL, there was a level of ease in the garage following the fairly tame 55-lapper. For Richard Childress Racing driver Brendan Gaughan, he was not surprised.
Standing as the debut race for the 2.280-mile road course, there were countless blogs, TV interviews and questions regarding concern for the new track and its tight corners. It all came following chaotic test days sent multiple drivers off course.
And after a day that had just five yellows (two for stage breaks) and 34 cars running at the end, many were surprised.
Not Gaughan.
“Look, we’re professional racecar drivers,” Gaughan told Kickin’ The Tires. “The problem is, nobody ever runs something like this so everybody got scared and panicked [saying] ‘Oh my God, Chicken Little, the sky is falling.’
“It was actually a really good race.”
Running his last of three races in RCR’s No. 3 Chevrolet, Gaughan started the event 18th and was mid-pack most of the day. But following the hype of the ROVAL possibly causing more accidents than passes, Gaughan was happy with how the track handled the competition.
“All the problems everybody thought they’d have, they didn’t happen,” he said. “I don’t know what the race looked like for the lead, but I saw a lot of battles going on. You’d have six or seven of us you could throw a blanket over, running nose-to-tail through the chicane. It looked like it was great for the fans.”
Spinning through the infield section of the course, Gaughan was also involved in a restart incident on lap 35, further damaging his march toward the top 10.
“We were in a big mass of people and I got hit in the right rear,” he said. “No big deal, that’s just tight-corner racing. Then with Turn 1, just wrong place, wrong time. Nothing we could do, just turned right in front of me. We did the best we could to get back up front.
“Kind of a bummer. These boys built me a lot better car and I wanted to do a lot better for them in the three races I had in the No. 3 car.”
Leaving the ROVAL in 17th, Gaughan was proud of his fellow drivers for proving their ability even with months of destructive hype.
“Amazing, they didn’t flip over, catch on fire,” he said. “Everybody was able to actually drive a race course. I’m impressed because everybody was saying that you’d never be able to do it.”