Different Kind of Gamble

Parnelli Jones had some wise words for Brendan Gaughan a few years ago, when the teenager’s passion for racing was heading into the first turn.

“You’ll know when to quit racing the day you have a big accident,” Jones said, “and your first thought is that the family business doesn’t seem so bad.”

When Gaughan’s Winston West car hit the wall at California Speedway a year ago and turned into what he called “a 75-foot fireball,” Gaughan’s mettle was tested. He broke his wrist and two ribs, and crawled from the car with the wind knocked out of him.

“I pounded the ground and yelled, ‘We have to rebuild the wrecked race car,’ ” Gaughan recalled. “And right after I said it, I realized I wasn’t thinking about the family business.”

The son of a Las Vegas casino magnate, Gaughan is focusing on being the best stock car driver he can. He already has one victory this season, is first after three races in the Winston West standings, and will try to make amends for last year’s crash when he drives Saturday in the Pontiac 200, a supporting race for Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500.

“I think he’s got a great future in NASCAR,” said his Orleans Racing car owner, Bill McAnally, who won last year’s championship with driver Sean Woodside. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes all the way to Winston Cup. . . . But it’s not anything that’s going to happen this year or next year. You have to take it one step at a time.”

Those steps include a second full Winston West series schedule, 12 races, and six Craftsman Truck series events. If things go well, Gaughan could be in the truck for a full season in 2001.

Gaughan, 24, is the youngest son of Michael Gaughan, whose holdings include the Orleans, Gold Coast, Barbary Coast and a new hotel-casino scheduled to open in September, the Sun Coast, as well as the Casino Queen in St. Louis.

Brendan’s grandfather, Jackie Gaughan, is a gaming pioneer who arrived in Las Vegas in 1949 and owns six casinos.

“Daddy’s never been one to hand us anything,” Gaughan said. “He’s always made us work for it, and doesn’t believe in nepotism. I’m the biggest benefactor of nepotism, but it doesn’t roll over into the casino business.”

Brendan has done everything from mopping floors and busing tables to dealing cards and working the cashier’s cage. His brother, John, 33, owns a service company to the gaming industry, and Michael Jr., 32, is general manager of the Barbary Coast. Sister Katie, 21, competes on the Nevada Las Vegas rodeo team as a barrel racer.

“There’s a difference between being aware of how good life is, and acting like it,” Gaughan said. “I can act like an ass and be labeled exactly what everyone thinks I am, or I can be what I hope people think I am, which is pretty appreciative. I know where [my good fortune] came from, and try to work twice as hard as the next guy.”

As stock car drivers go, Gaughan is atypical. He played football and basketball at Georgetown, and graduated in 1997 with a degree in human resource management. A kicker, he quit football his junior year when an exhibition against Penn conflicted with a season- ending off-road race and it became an issue with Coach Bob Benson.

“He had a problem with it, and he had a right to,” Gaughan said. “But in my life, I was looking to go racing, not play football. He understood, and I understood.”

Gaughan was a walk-on basketball player for John Thompson, a family friend. A 5-foot-9 point guard from 1995-97, Gaughan’s floor time was limited to mop-up roles, killing the final moments of a quarter, or fouling opponents.

Without attending Georgetown, he said, “I probably would have stayed in Las Vegas and become the typical Las Vegas brat-son-of-a-casino owner. . . .

“This is definitely a fantasy world. You can go play and have the fantasy, but you still have to live in the real world. Georgetown taught me that. John Thompson taught me that.”

Michael Gaughan, a partner with McAnally, raced off-road for 30 years, and Brendan began his racing career in the Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts series, winning his first race, illegally, at 15 (he didn’t yet have his driver’s license).

A succession of impressive performances while driving for another family friend, Walker Evans, included Gaughan’s first championship as a 20-year-old in 1995. He moved from off-road to pavement racing in 1998, and had two top-five finishes in five Winston West starts. He had six top-10 finishes and three top fives last season, his best a second-place finish in Japan.

His skills have been honed while logging more than 35,000 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he teaches at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. His home track was site of the Orleans 150 on Saturday, where Gaughan finished fourth. More comfortable on superspeedways like Las Vegas and Fontana, Gaughan scored his first victory on a half-mile oval last month in Bakersfield, surprising even himself.

“When we signed the deal with [McAnally to form Orleans Racing], my daddy told me I have two years to get it right, or go back to work,” Gaughan said. “I want to take that two years and turn it into 10.”