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Brendan Gaughan will be part-time in NASCAR next season

NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs Media Day

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 19: Brendan Gaughan speaks to the media as one of the 12 remaining drivers eligible to win the NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship during the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs Media Day at Embassy Suites Charlotte Uptown on September 19, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Getty Images for NASCAR

Brendan Gaughan’s career as a full-time NASCAR driver has come to an end after the conclusion of the 2017 Xfinity season.

But the 42-year-old veteran isn’t done with NASCAR.

Gaughan told Racer.com some of his career plans prior to Saturday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his last race in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 62 Chevrolet.

Those plans include a second season of competing in the four Cup restrictor-plate races next season for Beard Motorsports. He earned a top 10 in the July Daytona race this year, his first in Cup since 2004.

Gaughan said he could run in some road course races as well as some “here or there things.”

“I am very happy with going back to a part-time NASCAR role,” Gaughan said. “This has been 20 years of my life – it’s a lot work and it’s a lot of effort and it’s been a great 20 years. ... It’s been a hell of a ride but I’m at the point now where I’m happy. I really wanted to get a win this year and that kind of stinks that we didn’t.”

Gaughan piloted the No. 62 for RCR the last four seasons, earning two victories in 2014 and making the playoffs this season. He was eliminated after the first round.

The No. 62 was one of five full-time cars RCR fielded in the Xfinity Series this season. Gaughan finished 10th in the standings with two top fives and eight top 10s.

The end of his season was marked by an altercation between Gaughan, Ross Chastain and both driver’s crews after the race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Gaughan, a former basketball player at Georgetown University, has competed in all three of NASCAR’s national series since debuting in the Camping World Truck Series in 1997.

He earned eight victories in a Truck in 217 starts.

His four Cup starts next season will bring his career total to 58. His only full-time Cup year was 2004 when he drove the No. 77 co-owned by Roger Penske and finished 24th in the standings.

“Every year I almost retire,” Gaughan told NBC Sports in 2016. “But it’s always been the same strategy in my eyes. If I can’t win races, I don’t want to be here.”

The Las Vegas native also has multiple business ventures and a family with two young sons to take care of.

“I don’t want to be one of those racers from the ’70s and ’80s where (their kids) said they never saw their dad,” Gaughan said.