page_title: Brendan Gaughan
section_title: 2002–2004
hierarchical_section_title: Brendan Gaughan / Racing career / NASCAR career / 2002–2004
caption_attribution_description: Brendan Gaughan #77 signing autographs and hanging out at his transporter -- very friendly guy
context_page_description: William Brendan Gaughan is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 62 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Beard Motorsports. Gaughan is the grandson of Vegas gaming pioneer Jackie Gaughan and son of Michael Gaughan, a hotel and casino magnate.
  Gaughan began his career racing in off-road racing and he rose through the ranks from pickup trucks to the professional two-wheel-drive Trophy Truck class. In the late 1990s, he switched to pavement racing in a stock car. This led to a career in NASCAR racing. He began in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which was followed by the Busch Series and Cup Series during the 2000s.
context_section_description: In 2002, Gaughan and his father fielded a team for himself in the Truck Series full-time. He drove the No. 62 NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored truck to two victories on his way to the Rookie of the Year title. In 2003, he drove the No. 62 Orleans-sponsored Dodge for his father Michael, and he won six times, including twice at Texas Motor Speedway, giving him four consecutive wins at the track. He also held the points lead for most of the season, but finished 4th in points after wrecking in the last race of the season with Marty Houston, a teammate of one of Gaughan's rivals for the championship, Ted Musgrave.
  In 2004, Gaughan moved up to the Nextel Cup Series, driving the No. 77 Eastman Kodak-sponsored Dodge for Penske-Jasper Racing. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings and 28th in the final points standings. He finished the season with four Top 10’s, including a career-best Top 5 finish at Talladega Superspeedway, where he had been in contention to win before Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and several other drivers shuffled Gaughan back to fourth place. He did come close to a win at the Glen where he led a total of seven laps in the final 25 laps. He then spun out with 19 laps to go and then broke a transmission, finishing 34th. He was replaced at the end of the season by Travis Kvapil, after team owner Roger Penske was not satisfied with Gaughan's progress in the sport.
caption: Gaughan in 2004
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E990", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2004:11:16 16:17:33", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1307", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11748", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/583", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:11:07 10:32:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:11:07 10:32:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "7/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "117/5", "EXIF SubSecTime": "738", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1235", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}