Gaughan Posts Best Cup Finish Since 2004

A lot of things have changed in NASCAR since 2004.

The Car of Tomorrow (CoT) has come and gone.

Drivers have come and gone.

Rules have changed again and again.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is Brendan Gaughan’s presence in the sport. While it may shifted to a full-time NASCAR XFINITY Series ride with Richard Childress Racing, the former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship contender still likes to play with the big boys in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series every now and then. The always high energy driver proved this weekend he still has the desire and capability to do just that.

Driving for a small, underfunded team; Gaughan, with a little bit of help from an RCR teammate, was able to propel Beard Motorsports to a seventh-place finish, and the team’s first ever top-10 finish in Cup. This year’s Daytona 500 with Gaughan was the team’s first ever race at the Cup level. Beard operated his own XFINITY team and ran part-time in the 1980s and ’90s, but saw an opportunity to come back at the Cup level this year, and the team has run well. They were 11th in the Daytona 500 and 26th at Talladega in May before this weekend’s race.

For Gaughan, it was his first top-10 in the series since Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2004 where he finished sixth.

“We had a hell of a run. Nobody would work with us. Nobody would be our friends at the end,” Gaughan said in a video posted to the team’s Twitter. “Ryan Newman, RCR helped me out. We charged our way to a top-10. Hell of a run. Great job Darren (Shaw, crew chief). Thank you to the South Point boys for doing the pit stops. Thank you to the Beard family, and all the Beard folks … Thank you for letting me drive your race car. My first top-10 since 2004.”

Gaughan not only had a strong run in the Cup car, but also scored a ninth-place finish in the XFINITY race. This past weekend should help Gaughan gain some much needed momentum as he tries to qualify for the XFINITY Series playoffs going into Kentucky Speedway, the site of his last win in 2014.

Gaughan confirmed over Twitter that he will run the remaining restrictor plate race at Talladega in the No. 75 for Beard Motorsports in October.