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January 05, 2009
Brendan Gaughan Will Race for Rusty Wallace, Inc in 2009
Rusty Wallace, Inc made it official that Brendan Gaughan will race full-time for them in the Nationwide Series in 2009. Partial sponsorship for the #62 car will come from the South Point Hotel and Spa, the Gaughan family business so apparently Brendan's father decided that buying him a Nationwide ride with RWI would bring the best return on their money. Usually I have no issues with drivers buying rides or otherwise bringing financial backing with them to a ride since drivers need to do whatever is necessary to get a ride and teams need to do whatever is necessary to ensure that they have the money to operate competitively. However, based on Brendan's comments in a recent Sirius interview, his preference seems to have been returning to the Truck Series in the #10 truck for Circle Bar Racing but that decision wasn't up to him - where Brendan raced was entirely up to his father based on where he wanted to spend his money and Brendan was just fine with that because it made the money flow freely from his father to himself.
Brendan's Sirius interview was unfortunate to me because I think he came off like a bit of a spoiled brat, but I think it was also unfortunate because of the negative connotation that many fans equate with ride buying. Some believe that drivers who bring sponsorship with them and buy their rides only do so because they don't have the ability to get a ride based on talent. In reality Brendan has a lot of talent behind the wheel. If he has a competitive car or truck he's very capable of racing up front and winning races. Although Brendan has only raced one Nationwide race and that was in 2001, I wouldn't at all be surprised if he won a race in 2009.
I often wonder though what Brendan's career might have been like if he hadn't raced for his family's team and with the backing of his family's money for so long. The easy answer is that he might have had a much shorter career because his family's money opened a lot of doors for him and made it possible for him to race when there might otherwise not have been rides available to him. But I sometimes wonder if Brendan would have done even more if he had to rely only on himself, his ability behind the wheel and his other talents. I'm sure Brendan always gives 100% effort at all times but he would probably have had to work - and race - even harder to prove himself without his family's money to smooth the way.
The question now becomes who is going to end up in the #10 truck? As far as I know the truck still has full sponsorship from Maxxforce so presumably CBR will continue to field two trucks. Although the #10 didn't end up in Victory Lane in 2008 it's still a pretty competitive ride that would likely interest quite a few of the many drivers who are looking for rides right now. That puts CBR in a pretty good position because they can choose from a driver pool that includes veteran Truck Series drivers who are former series champions, talented Cup drivers who might be interested in taking their career in a different direction by racing a truck, and some promising young drivers.
As for Brendan, given how fan-friendly he is and that he'll be a Nationwide-only driver, he's a good addition to the Nationwide Series and I think he'll do well for RWI.
Posted by silverdsl at January 5, 2009 03:35 PM