Brendan Gaughan Powers his way to the Win at Kentucky Speedway

Brendan Gaughan won his second Nationwide Series race of the 2014 season passing Chase Elliott and teammate Ty Dillon for the lead late in the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 at the Kentucky Speedway  Saturday night. His other victory was at Road America in June. Brian Scott finished second with Dillon finishing third making a 1-2-3 sweep for Richard Childress Racing. Elliott finished fourth and Regan Smith rounded out the top five.

Dillon was the class of the field all night leading 155 of the 200 lap race. Elliott had gained the lead from Dillon on lap 174 when Eric McClure hit the wall bringing out the caution flag. Two caution periods, one for Sam Hornish Jr., driving the No.54 Kyle Busch Motorsports entry, who hit the wall after contact with Regan Smith, and the second for debris, closed up the field with less than 20 laps to go. On the last restart, when Elliott and Dillon were battling for the lead, Gaughan pounced, passing them both and pulled away.

“I love restarts, and when that caution came out and we were fourth, I got really excited because I knew we were on the outside and thought we had a good group, and we did,” said Gaughan.”  You have to choose a teammate, so I chose Ty and pushed him down the back straightaway, and he had a launch into turn three, but it was just too much. When they got side by side and I’ve been doing this a long time and an area opened up just enough, I couldn’t believe we were able to take off like that.”

Scott said after the race, “I thought it was the right call to take four tires at the end. I restarted sixth and got a good restart and got up to fourth and I thought we were going to win this race. But, unfortunately, we didn’t get any long runs and our Shore Lodge Camaro was a little too tight.”

Dillon clearly disappointed after his dominant performance said, “I spun the tires a bit there at the end and it really cost us. Elliott was able to get a nose ahead of us there before that last caution came out, and that gave our teammate with four tires a chance to get up there and take the win.”

“It was really good, hard racing there at the end,” Dillon continued. “These cars are under-powered and aero becomes a big deal, and on the restarts, when you get the side draft on those guys and the guy behind you get such a great run, it’s hard to hold them both of them off.”

The four cautions over the last 31 laps had significant impact on the outcome of the race but it was Gaughan’s restart and power move that won him the race.

Elliott retains the series lead by 20 points over Regan Smith. Ty Dillon, (-38), Brian Scott (-55) and Elliott Sadler (-51) round out the top five.

The Nationwide Series travels to Dover International Speedway September 27. The race is scheduled for 3:30 pm ET and will be televised on ESPN2.

Complete Finishing Order: