Road America delivers exciting finish

Today’s Nationwide Series race at Road America was filled with ups and downs. The event was delayed for nearly an hour as a result of rain. Weather conditions actually loomed overhead throughout the afternoon as teams were forced to race on Goodyear wet weather tires. At times visibility was extremely poor as cars kicked up clouds of mist from water on the track and racing was extremely slippery given the surface conditions of the race track. However through all the hassle and frustrations, Road America delivered plenty of drama filled excitement in the closing laps of the Gardner Denver 200.

In the latter stages of the race, Alex Tagliani was trying to stretch his fuel to the end of the 200 mile event while attempting to hold off a hard charging Brendan Gaughan who was not having to save fuel. Tagliani appeared that only gas would stop the #22 Discount Tire Ford from winning. Then with 2 laps to go, Justin Marks ran out of gas which ruined Tagliani’s gamble for the win. Tagliani actually ran out of gas under caution a lap later and had to get pushed back to pit road where to get fuel. The #22 team took tried to make the most of their pit stop by replacing Goodyear’s wet weather tires with normal dry racing tires as track conditions had dried and those tires would be much faster. However, the focus surrounding the race for the win had shifted to the front of the pack with Brendan Gaughan and Chase Elliot who were restarting together on the front row.

When the green flag waved for a Green-White-Checker finish, NASCAR’s most promising young talent in Chase Elliot jumped out in front after a great restart. Elliot took the lead from Gaughan coming out of turn 1 from the high side of the track. Elliot pulled Gaughan by a good distance off turn 1 and for a moment appeared destined for the 3rd win of his rookie season. Instead, Brendan Gaughan who had never won a Nationwide Series race in 97 starts, mounted a comeback. Gaughan set Elliot up perfectly coming off Canada corner and was able to make the pass while coming to the white flag. However, the drama had still not concluded.

Elliot looked to the inside of the #62 car getting into turn 1 on the final lap and appeared as if he was going to drive the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet in deep to get in position for a pass. However, Gaughan also ran the car into turn 1 extremely hard smoking all 4 tires on entry and holding onto the lead. Elliot was able to get to Gaughan’s rear bumper and gave him a nice shove exiting turn 3 but that opened the door for the #23 of Kevin O’Connell who was having the best run of his career. O’Connell was able to get around the #9 car of Elliot for the 2nd position and pulled up to the back bumper of Brendan Gaughan as if he was going to be able to try and pull off a late last lap pass for the win. As this was going on, Alex Tagliani had stormed from the 23rd starting position on the restart with his new tires and was able to push Elliot out of the groove to get to the 3rd position. Tagliani blew by O’Connell in the final turn but simply ran out of time. When Tagliani cleared O’Connell, Brendan Gaughan was coming to the checker flag to score the first Nationwide Series win of his career. Not only had the sentimental favorite pulled off a huge upset, but Road America provided some of the best racing we have seen this year in those final few laps.

While there was plenty of factors that plagued the racing at Road America today, the 4.048 mile road course at Elkhart Lake proved once again why it is on the Nationwide Series schedule with yet another exciting finish. Not only was the racing exciting, but one of the guys long overdue for a win finally claimed his first victory. Brendan Gaughan had fired the engine on his Nationwide Series car nearly a 100 times and had never captured a win. The driver of the #62 car had also recently dedicated his season to his late grandfather, Las Vegas Gaming Pioneer Jackie Gaughan who passed away earlier this year. Not only was the win emotional from the standpoint of the Gaughan family but it was finally a confirmation that Brendan, who will turn 40 years old in 3 weeks, could get the job done. Gaughan was already well respected among many NASCAR veterans and that respect was shown immediately follow today’s race with plenty of Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and former drivers taking to social media to congratulate Gaughan on his first win. So once again, Road America delivered a great finish and story line from the today’s Nationwide Series event

From the betting side of today’s race, we just barely missed out with our opening pick Chase Elliot. However, we still went 3-0 on our H2H plays for a solid +425 profit. That profit is on top of a 2-0 (+400) sweep earlier today in Sprint Cup qualifying which pushed us over the 30 units mark on the season. Be sure to check back later this evening when we finalize our full roster for the Toyota SaveMart 350 which will start shortly after 3:00pm (EST) on Sunday. If for some reason you were not excited about road racing before today, hopefully today’s Nationwide Series race changed your mind because simply put, Road America delivered some of the best racing we have seen this season!

Gardner Denver 200 Finishing Order