DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Brendan Gaughan stepped away from a full time seat in NASCAR after the 2017 season. Now, he just shows up to race when he and Beard Motorsports wants to. 

With how the NASCAR Charter system works now, the days leading up to the Duels in Daytona are as stressful as they can be for the Las Vegas native. See, unless you own one of the coveted 36 charters in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the only other way to get into the Daytona 500 is to be one of the two fastest “open” cars in qualifying or to race your way in during the 150 mile qualifying races.

In 2016, Gaughan qualified his No. 75 Chevrolet on speed and made the show that way. Last year, only 40 cars showed up to Speedweeks, so nobody went home. This year, Gaughan wasn’t one of the two fastest open qualifiers last Sunday. That meant he had some work to do on Thursday night.

In turn, Gaughan was as nervous as he’s been in decades.

“I was lying out of my eyeballs to everybody that I wasn’t nervous,” said Gaughan on what he said on Wednesday’s Media Day. “I haven’t been this nervous since I was a rookie in the Winston West Series.  I can’t tell you, the butterflies I felt coming up to this race.

“I’m a class clown, trying to relax.  I never want to come down here again and not lock myself in in qualifying.  If I come back with the Beard Motorsports team, we will make sure we’re the fastest in qualifying no matter what because this absolutely sucks and I’m too old to feel these butterflies.”

Gaughan, said that he didn’t think Thursday was a huge accomplishment because he wants to win the Daytona 500. That’s all. Thursday meant nothing but locking himself into the big show for Sunday.

No,” Gaughan said on if Thursday night was rewarding. “The Daytona 500 is special.  I don’t care if you start 40th or got the pole, it’s special.  It just is very exciting we got it in.  We had to do it the hard way.  Like I said, I don’t want to do it the hard way again.  I’d rather do the easy way.  Much more simple.”

Gaughan, is someone you can’t overlook in Sunday’s race. He finished 11th with this team in 2017 and was in the hunt until being collected in a late race crash again in 2018. This car is fast and one that despite being the last one in, can be the first one across the finish line on Sunday afternoon.