Gaughan to Attempt 59th Annual Daytona 500

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Brendan Gaughan will attempt the 59th Annual Daytona 500 with Beard Motorsports next month. The team has acquired the Chevrolet SS that Michael McDowell raced to a 15th place finish in last season's season opening race at Daytona and the team will need about the same amount of luck that McDowell had in 2016 during speedweeks as Brendan will not have a charter for the 59th Annual Daytona 500.

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Beard Motorsports is owned by Mark Beard. Beard has a total of 11 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with their last start coming at Dublin Speedway back in 1991. Beard entered a car in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards in 6 races with Clay Rogers. Most recently though Beard entered the #75 Chevrolet SS at Richmond and Phoenix in 2014 with Clay, but both attempts resulted in DNQ's.
Gaughan told the Las Vegas Review Journal that "Jay Robinson, the man I drove for a couple of years ago at Premium Motorsports, called me in the middle of the Christmas break and said a friend of his was trying to do a deal and run the 500," Gaughan told the LVRJ. "They bought the old Leavine car, they've hired ECR to do motors - real racing motors - and they asked if I would be interested. So it's got Richard Childress motors, and I'm going to have a Richard Childress pit crew - my guys - and so we're going to the Daytona 500 and see if we can qualify."
Brendan Gaughan has raced in one Daytona 500 back in 2004 for Team Penske when he drove the #77 entry for the team. In his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut back in 2004, Gaughan finished 19th which just happened to be his first start in the "Great American Race". Beard and his team is bringing back the excitement level of the Daytona 500 with teams entering just one race a year where the entry list could get bigger. Currently there is two open teams that have announced they will enter the Daytona 500 with Elliott Sadler and Tommy Baldwin Racing being the second.