Backstretch Motorsports

Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150, heads home to Texas for this weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. Braun is the only driver in the series to have started every race this season from the top 10. He leads the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings and is 14th in overall points, just 73 points out of top 10.

COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 – “I’m excited to go to back to Texas. Since I lived there and grew up there, I’ve been to a couple of my Dad’s IRL races there at the speedway. I never raced out there myself but I’m definitely excited to go back. Just being in Texas, I love Texas, I know a little bit of the Dallas area and things like that, so it should be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it.”

HOW FAR IS OVALO FROM TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY? “It’s about three and half hours. It’s going to me a neat mix because I’m from Texas and we’re racing a Ford F-150 truck. And there is a truck plant in Texas. It should be a lot of fun.”

YOU’RE LEADING THE ROOKIE POINTS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SEASON YOU’VE HAD TO DATE? “It’s gone all right. We’ve had a lot of unfortunate racing luck a little bit lately. Hopefully, we can get that turned around a little bit and have a little bit of luck on our side. It’s gone very well. Everybody’s done a great job. We’ve been fast everywhere that we’ve gone. That’s been the most encouraging thing about the whole season. We’re not struggling because of a lack of performance. We’re struggling to try to get a bit of luck go our way. Everybody has done a really good job on this No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 team.”

HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A TRACK THAT YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TOO BEFORE? “For me, we have a lot of film we have stored back at the shop. So, I watch all the film that I can from the last few races and talk to my teammates on the Truck side and the Cup side. I talked to my spotter Bobby Hudson as much as I can and my crew chief Mike Beam and try to pull out all the information out from those guys. I read back through some notes that they’ve had from the last couple of years, run notes and things like that. I just try to be as well prepared as I can.”

COMING FROM ROAD-COURSE RACING WHERE YOU REALLY NEEDED TO KNOW THE TRACK, DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE AN EASIER TIME LEARNING TRACKS NOW? “The way I look at is you have only four corners to learn on the NASCAR side of things where you go to some race tracks you’d have 12, 13 or 14 different corners to learn on the road-course stuff. At least I know this one goes around in a circle; I don’t have to think if it’s a right- or left-hander now. It makes it a little bit easier, but the problem is these race tracks people know so much about them and there are so many more things that experienced drivers know that I don’t know and it really pays off to have that experience. Certainly, it’s less corners to learn, that’s for sure.”

WE’RE IN A SEVEN-RACE STRETCH. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RACING THAT MANY DIFFERENT PLACES SO CLOSE TOGETHER? “I think it’s great. I love racing. I love being in the truck all the time. It’s nice to get a little bit of momentum going and kind of get a little bit of a routine going. I certainly enjoy it. I know the guys back in the shop have to work a lot of Saturdays and Sundays and I feel bad about that, but I’m certainly am enjoying it. I think it helps this whole team get a bit of momentum going. We’ve had so many races where you have a race, then two or three weeks off, a race, then two or three weeks off and it’s just hard to get into a rhythm. It’s nice here. We’ve kind of gotten into a rhythm and everybody knows what their jobs are every time we go to the race track. You can definitely see the whole group coming together here.”

IS IT EASY TO MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRACKS? “I think so. I don’t think it’s too difficult. We prepare before the weekend and do a few reports after the weekend. Then it’s preparing again for the next weekend. I think of it as four-day events. You prepare for a day before, do your race and everything, then follow up the next day. After that, start preparing for the next weekend. I don’t think it’s that difficult.”

THE SEASON IS ABOUT A THIRD COMPLETE. WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS? HAVE YOU MET OR CHANGED THEM? “Our goals were try to win that rookie of the year championship. I guess since we’re leading that, we’re meeting that goal. Certainly, we would like to win a race in the next two-thirds of the season. I think we have the performance to do it. We just have to make it all happen and put it together. Other than that, I think we’re pretty much meeting all our goals. We’re making all the laps. I think Daytona was the only race we crashed out of and didn’t make all the laps. We’ve been getting me a lot of experience and learning a lot so that’s important.”