in Milwaukee
Colin Braun will pilot the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this weekend at The Milwaukee Mile. This will be Braun’s 11th truck race and third Nationwide race this year. Braun talks about double-duty racing and preparing for this weekend’s races.
COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 – THIS IS A NEW TRACK FOR YOU AND YOU’RE RACING IN BOTH THE TRUCK AND NATIONWIDE RACES. TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR PREPARE FOR THIS WEEKEND. “I’ve never been here before in a race, but I came here last week and tested with the COT car. That was awesome. It was great of Chris Andrews and all the guys on the R&D team to give me a chance to come here and get a few laps at Milwaukee before we came back and raced here. I’m real excited about doing double-duty that will be a lot of fun. It will be great to drive the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 truck on Friday night. Then I’ll have the chance to think about it, sleep on it, go back and drive the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion on Saturday night. I’m really excited to get a chance to kind of come back to a race track that I have raced on Friday and get to come back and race it Saturday night. Hardly have I come to a race track that I’ve raced at before so far this season. So, that should be pretty nice.”
CAN YOU APPLY THINGS THAT YOU LEARNED AT THE TEST TO THE TRUCK AND NATIONWIDE RACES? “I think it will apply to everything. For me, it was just figuring out how to drive this race track. Being a road course guy and a sports car kind of guy, I never really driven on a flat track before, so it’s definitely a little bit different. It takes a bit of time to get used to. I think it will help both series. I think the biggest thing it will help us here in the first practice in the truck series, just getting up to speed quicker.”
WHAT EMOTIONS ARE YOU FEELING HEADING INTO A DOUBLE-DUTY WEEKEND? “I’m just excited. I’m ready to go. We’ve been preparing for this for a long time. My crew chief Mike Beam and my engineer Hal Ralston, those guys have been working their tails off. My crew chief on the Nationwide side, Eddie Pardue has been doing a really good job. I’m just ready to go and get after it.”
A FEW WEEKS AGO YOU SAID THE TEXAS RACE WAS YOUR HOME RACE, BUT YOU ALSO SAID MILWAUKEE WAS A HOME TRACK TOO. HOW COME? “My Mom is actually from right around Northern Illinois and my Dad is from Milwaukee. All my aunts and uncles and cousins are all here. I guess this race is more of a home race for me than Texas would be, but it’s kind of backwards.”
LAST YEAR’S DRIVER OF THE No. 6 FORD F-150, TRAVIS KVAPIL, WAS FROM WISCONSIN AND HE HAD A SMALL FAN CLUB AT THE TRACK. WILL WE SEE A ‘TEAM COLIN’ GROUP HERE THIS WEEKEND? “I don’t know. We’ll see who turns out. I hope so, it would be awesome.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE RACES THIS WEEKEND? “For the truck race, we just need to go out and have a good solid day. We need to make all the laps and keep finishing well for those Raybestos Rookie of the Year points, keep scoring top-10s and maybe get a top-five here. I know last year they were pretty quick and didn’t quite have enough at the end. I know Mike and Hal have been working really hard trying to bring back a better package so, we’ll see what happens.”
DID YOU WATCH LAST YEAR’S RACE TO PREPARE? “Oh, yeah, I’ve been watching a lot of tapes and talking to as many people as I can about this place. When we were testing here, we had Carl Edwards and David Ragan, so I got a chance to ask those guys a lot of questions. They really helped me out a lot in just learning how to drive this race track. I feel pretty prepared going into the weekend.”
HOW DOES WATCHING RACE TAPE HELP? “Just watching what happens in the race. Things like where people can pass other guys and where people have problems. By not having the experience of racing here, I can look on the tapes and see where people made mistakes or where people really capitalized on passing people. Plus you can see how the different grooves run, how the race progresses and what lines open up towards the end of the race. Things like that really help.”
HAVE YOU FOUND A TYPE OF TRACK THAT YOU REALLY LIKE TO RACE? “For me, I really enjoy driving on the mile-and-a-half tracks. It’s quite a balance between having a really good truck and having a great crew chief to work with. Obviously, here at Roush Fenway we have both. Those guys build such a good truck back in the shop. You go to these short tracks like Martinsville, Bristol and those kinds of places and it seems like to me everybody’s truck is all pretty close. When you get to the mile-and-a-half tracks and it really separates some of the top trucks from the trucks that aren’t so good. I think it’s cool to go out and drive these guys trucks that are so nice to drive and show how fast they go.”
