Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
It has been four weeks since he lost his ride with Penske-Jasper Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and Brendan Gaughan said he couldn't be happier.
Gaughan, a Las Vegas native, has spent the past month rededicating himself to his family-owned Orleans Racing team, where he will drive a second Dodge truck in at least 16 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races this season as a teammate to Steve Park. Gaughan, 29, also has been working on putting together a deal to race in the Cup Series -- although he said that is not his top priority.
"It's nice to be back here," Gaughan said as he put in another full day at the Orleans Racing shop near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "This is still what I've always considered my team and my boys and the guys are all responding really well. The guys are working hard right now and we're adding people to the shop."
Among the additions Gaughan has made include the hiring of veteran Cup Series mechanic Bill Wilburn, who will serve as crew chief for Gaughan's No. 61 truck, and longtime local driver/racecar builder Dick Cobb in the suspension department.
"That's a big deal; you can't imagine how big it is to have a guy like (Wilburn) here," Gaughan said. "It takes pressure off Charlie Wilson (Park's crew chief), and it lets Charlie do more of the stuff that he's good at. It's neat to have him here, and Dick Cobb ... taught me everything I knew about the Late Model (car) and getting around in a circle.
"That (hire) makes me happy because he's now in big-time auto racing, which is what he deserves. He's an asset to this team because he's got so much experience putting things together that -- even though he hasn't put this stuff together -- he's put something together like it at some point and knows how to do it right. He's a good steadying influence in here."
Gaughan, who finished second in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings last season, said his goal is to return Orleans Racing's truck program to where it was in 2003 when he won six races and was leading the points standings going into the final race of the season.
"We're going to get back to having that swagger and that -- for lack of a better word -- arrogance that ... we are the Orleans Racing team, like we had in 2003," Gaughan said. "We're going to make sure that we get that back."
To that end, Gaughan said he and Park would have identically prepared trucks and that the two would share all of the team's resources and information.
"In this shop, all the trucks are painted in one color," he said. "This is one shop and one team. In this shop, there's not a guy that works on (Park's truck) and a guy that works on my truck; everybody works on (both) trucks. Right now, the backup truck for Daytona, for Steve Park, is my primary truck for California.
"We're not going to (have a situation) where anybody can say 'Steve Park didn't get this or Brendan Gaughan gets better stuff' -- we're getting the same stuff. Me and Steve are going to be teammates and this team is not going to be separated like some organizations end up getting where they don't share."
Gaughan said he should know in the next two weeks whether he will be able to put together a deal that would allow him to return to the Nextel Cup Series this season.
"We've got nothing worked out, we're just working on" a deal, Gaughan said. "I've got a lot of people calling me and I'm very much flattered by the phone calls, but I'm going to do this the way I want to do it now. I had my opportunity to do it somebody else's way and it didn't work out for me ... and I'm much, much happier sitting in this office right now being able to make the decisions I want to make now.
"It is not an Orleans Racing team venture," he said of his potential Cup deal. "Someday I would love this to be the first Nextel Cup operation from the West Coast -- that has been a goal of mine for about four years, and with any luck I can make it that -- but we're not looking to do that right now."
If Gaughan isn't able to secure anything in the Cup Series, he said he likely would expand and run the full 25-race schedule in the Truck Series.
And while he still is looking for a sponsor for Park's truck, Gaughan said he is close to announcing a sponsorship deal for his No. 61 truck -- a result of the exposure he gained and the contacts he made during his season in the Nextel Cup Series.
"I had a great opportunity with Kodak and Jasper and with Roger Penske," Gaughan said of the 2004 campaign. "I met a lot of people that I never would have had a chance to meet and I've got an opportunity now with sponsors like Mobil One, which is going to get bigger for us, and Dodge, which has always supported me.
"As much as I was unhappy there at the end, I didn't go out making a jerk out of myself and, fortunately for me, I made great friends. I got to work with good, solid people and made friendships that hopefully will last forever."
Jourdain, who has two career Champ Car victories in 152 starts, will team with Kenny Wallace in a two-car ppc Racing effort, with support from Ford. Jourdain, a native of Mexico City, will become the first Hispanic driver to compete full-time on the Busch Series circuit.
"I'm very excited about this chance," Jourdain said. "I've been wanting to come to NASCAR for a couple years now, and Dan Davis (of Ford Racing) worked very hard with me to find the right opportunity where I could have a chance to work and learn with a top team like ppc.
"We know this is going to be a learning year. I've raced on some of the tracks -- places like Fontana and Milwaukee -- but a lot of them will be new for me. By the end of the year, I hope we'll be in position to compete for top tens and top fives, but the key for me this year will be to finish races and get as much seat time as I can."
The Busch Series will race March 6 in Jourdain's hometown of Mexico City -- the series' first event to be held outside of the United States.
Champ Car officials announced in late October that the series would return to the 1.5-mile LVMS oval in 2005, but had not yet worked out the details of an agreement.
The series also is believed to be negotiating with LVMS to stage its annual "spring training" at the speedway in February.
Busch, Kenseth, Biffle and Maxwell will split driving time in the No. 49 Crown Royal-sponsored Ford Multimatic Daytona Prototype entry at Daytona International Speedway.
"One of the first things I knew about Jack Roush was his heritage in the 24-hour race at Daytona," Busch said. "Now to be a member of Roush Racing with Greg and Matt, and to team up with Multimatic and Scott for this event gives me a chance to be a part of history.
"It's going to be an all-star effort for this Crown Royal team, but there are some fantastic drivers in the Grand American Series that we'll be competing against. We're going to look to Scott to lead us goofy oval guys around those right turns in Daytona, but we're definitely going to have fun with it."
The two-day test will be open to the public at no charge -- as will the NASCAR Busch Series test Feb. 2-3.
The event, which kicks off the five-race 2005 SCORE Desert Series, already has attracted a race-record 219 entries and more than 230 vehicles are expected to take the green flag in the two-day timed event Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 15-16.
Racing starts at 7 a.m. both days at the Laughlin Events Park at the corner of Thomas Edison Drive and Bruce Woodbury Way in Laughlin. Pre-race activities include the popular "Laughlin Leap" at 6 p.m. Thursday and the "SCORE Pit Crew Showdown" at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Additional information can be found at www.score-international.com.