Gaughan ends up victorious in the Bluegrass State

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In: Xfinity Series News

Brendan Gaughan passed Chase Elliott with five laps to go for his second career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) win at Kentucky.  Ty Dillon was the driver to beat on the night by leading 155 of the 200 laps at the 1.5 mile speedway.

A caution with 30 laps to go bunched up the field, when the engine of the No. 23 car of Cody Ware let go.  Ware filled in for Carlos Contreras, who skipped his 100th NASCAR national series start due to kidney stones.

The leaders came down for final pit stops, with Dillon coming out first with two tires.  His Richard Childress Racing teammate, Brian Scott, took four and restarted in sixth.  The younger Dillon would be tested on the restart.  Points leader Chase Elliott put a challenge on Dillon before Eric McClure hit the wall.  Elliott was ahead of Dillon at the time the caution came out and took over the top spot.

Clean air is king at Kentucky and Dillon showed it most of the night.  The cautions wouldn’t stop after that, when Sam Hornish, Jr. got help from Regan Smith and setting the No. 54 team back in owner points.  Their rival for the championship, the No. 22 team, finished eighth with Michael McDowell.

Restart after restart, it appeared Chase Elliott seemed to hang on and make a possible bigger dent in his points lead.  On the final one, the 18-year-old driver slipped a little and Dillon got to the inside of the No. 9 car.  The two continued to battle, allowing Gaughan to close in and go to the outside of Elliott.  Gaughan prefers the high line and scooted right by Elliott to take the lead and get clean air on his No.62 Chevrolet.

Gaughan took the lead early in the race and took four tires on the first pit stop to put his machine mid-pack.  The Road America winner stayed in the top 10 all night to stay in contention for victory. 

His teammate, Brian Scott, kept leader Dillon within sight most of the night and settled for a runner-up finish.  RCR cars finished first, second, third and sixth on the night  The sixth-place finish was that of Cale Conley, who has shown speed all season in his limited number of starts.  It was also his best career finish in the series. 

Other drivers with strong runs were Justin Boston (ninth) and Ross Chastain (10th).  Boston made his NNS debut with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in Saturday night’s race, while Chastain made another start with Hattori Racing.  Justin Boston is also scheduled to drive for JGR next weekend at Dover, where he finished second in last year’s K&N Pro Series East race there.

Regan Smith salvaged a top-five finish and kept Chase Elliott’s points lead at minimal damage.  Elliott’s lead is now at 20 points, unofficially.  Chevrolet swept the first six spots with being a mix of RCR and JR Motorsports cars.  Chris Buescher was the first non-Chevrolet driver with a Ford in seventh. 

The series heads to the Dover International Speedway next weekend for 200 miles on the concrete track.  Kyle Busch won there in May and Joey Logano is the defending winner of the fall race

VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 Top 10

  1. #62 Brendan Gaughan
  2. #2 Brian Scott
  3. #3 Ty Dillon
  4. #9 Chase Elliott
  5. #7 Regan Smith
  6. #33 Cale Conley
  7. #60 Chris Buescher
  8. #22 Michael McDowell
  9. #20 Justin Boston
  10. #80 Ross Chastain
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