KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Brendan Gaughan will be the first to admit he’s the class clown of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

So on Thursday when the 27-year-old from Las Vegas bragged about helping Allen Iverson become famous in the NBA, most everyone shot him a skeptical look. C’mon, how many hoopsters out there dabble in auto racing on the side?

Sure enough, this time Gaughan was telling the truth. He was a back-up guard behind Iverson for Georgetown under legendary coach John Thompson’s tutelage.

“I remember Allen literally breaking my ankles with a killer crossover and me just going, ‘Man, I hate that,'” said Gaughan, who also was an all-conference football player for the Hoyas. “For him to watch me now and go, ‘Man, he’s crazy,’ it’s kind of a little payback.”

Like Iverson, Gaughan also is trying to climb the ladder in his sport and wouldn’t mind skipping a few rungs with a win Saturday during the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.

Gaughan currently sits in 10th place in the points standings and has had four top-10 finishes in nine starts, including a win at Texas Motor Speedway  a 1.5-mile oval track similar to the Speedway’s layout.

“We’re coming around,” Gaughan said. “We think that we can make our way up in the points standings with the next stretch of tracks that we have. I think we’re going to be interesting to watch.”

Gaughan, who is the son of Las Vegas hotel and casino magnate Michael Gaughan, said the truck series has become extremely popular with the fans. That was one reason he wanted to get back to his truck roots after winning five titles during several seasons of off-road events.

“The competition is probably more difficult than it has ever been in the truck series,” said Gaughan, the 2000-01 NASCAR Winston West champion. “We’ll never be able to compete with Winston Cup cars, but I think that we’re about even with the Busch cars in popularity right now.”

And while Gaughan says the points race is still wide open, he wouldn’t mind picking up a little ground with a victory  or maybe even getting a few of his former basketball teammates out to watch him.

“They all promised me they were going to come to one race this year,” he said. “I’ve already gotten coach Thompson out there to support me, and I’m going to hold them to it. They have too much time off right now anyway.”