Brendan Gaughan earns respect on and off track at Mid-Ohio

They say nobody remembers the guy who finishes second. But plaudits and respect have been earned by the guy who finished seventh in last week’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Brendan Gaughan of Las Vegas, whose stock car specialties are the road courses and the big ovals, was running second when he pulled alongside leader Sam Hornish to pass on a late restart. Hornish slid up the track and drove Gaughan off.

Gaughan almost lost it in the grass.

But Gaughan didn’t lose it.

Save of the year, NASCAR people said.

Hornish, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, went on to win. Gaughan kept driving hard and passed a couple of more guys to wind up a disappointing seventh.

Gaughan, 42, is nearing the end of a solid but not spectacular NASCAR career. He has a won a few races, but not enough to where letting opportunities such as the one at Mid-Ohio get away don’t matter. It mattered a lot. To win after charging through the field — he had started 17th on a track on which it’s difficult to pass — would have been fantastic.

Gaughan was upset, but he bit his tongue. He didn’t say much. Not even on Twitter. He did post icons of little red devils who appeared to be upset.

“Way too pissed off right now to tweet … so I’m gonna leave Twitter alone for the night and try and chill,” the mild-mannered driver of the No. 62 South Point Chevy wrote.

During his victory interview, Hornish, who also is a gentlemanly racer, offered an unsolicited apology.

“I feel bad for the 62,” Roger Penske’s driver said. “Got cleared and moved up on him a little bit. Brendan’s always raced me good, you know. I didn’t want to beat him that way.”

On Sunday, somebody in the Wood Brothers organization commented on social media that Gaughan had made a great save in the grass that smacked of Earnhardt. Senior, not Junior.

“Still haven’t completely found my happy place, but this has been my favorite message so far,” Gaughan wrote.

So let the record show that while Brendan Gaughan finished seventh at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a lot of people in NASCAR still believe he’s a winner.

Green, white checkered

— It appears push might come to shove in Monster Energy’s relationships with NASCAR as title sponsor of its premier Cup Series, and with Stewart-Haas Racing as sponsor of driver Kurt Busch of Las Vegas. Sports Business Journal reports that Monster is obligated to inform NASCAR in December if it will continue as Cup Series title sponsor beyond 2018, and whether the squiggly lime green capital ‘M’ will stay on board Busch’s No. 41 car. Monster is said to be “looking at recalibrating its investment” in NASCAR. It’s hard to say what “recalibration” means, only that it sounds sort of ominous.

— Noah Gragson of Las Vegas finished 15th in Wednesday night’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Bristol, Tennessee, and remains on the outside looking into the playoffs with two races left in the regular season. The Las Vegas teenager, who drives the No. 18 Tundra for fellow Las Vegan (and Bristol race winner) Kyle Busch, would have to win one of the two remaining races or make up 34 points and two spots in the standings to qualify for the playoffs as a rookie.

— Kyle Busch’s weekly Twitter storm took the shape of a quick televised lightning bolt last weekend. “Brad’s a (bleeping) moron,” Busch told ESPN after bitter rival and Ford driver Brad Keselowski claimed Toyota (for which Busch drives) was dialing back engine power at Michigan to throw off NASCAR’s level playing field watchdogs.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.