#62-Brendan Gaughan finally regained the lead with five laps left and went on to win his third straight NASCAR Truck series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night. After getting blocked in the pits twice, dropping from the lead to 11th place during a caution on lap 101, Gaughan took the high line with his Dodge through the first and second turns on the 163rd lap to pass rookie #99-Carl Edwards for the lead in the O’Reilly 400. Gaughan stretched his lead from there, and went on to beat Edwards by 0.865 seconds for his third career win – all at Texas. Gaughan won with an average speed of 140.621 mph, a track record and the fifth-fastest in series history. #50-Jon Wood finished third, followed by #16-Travis Kvapil abd #46-Dennis Setzer. The only other driver to win three straight Craftsman Truck Series races at the same track was Jack Sprague at Phoenix from 1996-97. Gaughan, racing the same truck that won both previous races, finished second in his only other race at the 11/2-mile Texas track. Gaughan led four times, for just 16 laps. His third lead came four laps before a caution on the 101st lap when he got stuck in his pit for the second time. Series points leader #4-Bobby Hamilton started on the pole after qualifying was rained out. He kept his Dodge in front a race-high 71 laps and finished seventh, maintaining a 73-point lead over #14-Rick Crawford in the season standings. #49-Shawna Robinson and the all women pit crew finished 18th, five laps down.(AP/ThatsRacin.com)
See results at ThatsRacin.com, MotorsportsOne, Truckseries.com or NASCAR.com.(6-6-2003)
