Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

Braun - Ford interview 2009-06-16

This Week in Ford Racing: Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Con-way Ford F-150, made his first appearance in the winner's circle this weekend after 35 starts in NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series, giving Jack Roush his 50th win in the series. This ...

This Week in Ford Racing:

Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Con-way Ford F-150, made his first appearance in the winner's circle this weekend after 35 starts in NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series, giving Jack Roush his 50th win in the series. This weekend also marked the launch of Braun's new partnership with the teen safe driving program, Ford Driving Skills for Life.

HOW DID IT FEEL TO WIN ON SATURDAY? "Well, it was great. To get my first win in the series, and Jack Roush's 50th win, and to continue the streak of Roush Fenway trucks winning at Michigan, I think it's three straight races for Roush Fenway and Ford, was pretty special. Not to mention the fact that Con-way Freight, my sponsor, it was right in their backyard as well, so I really couldn't ask for more than that. That was about the perfect story-book ending right there."

WHAT WAS THE KEY TO WINNING ON SATURDAY? "For me, it was just having a fast truck. My guys at the shop worked really hard to give me just a super fast truck. It didn't seem to matter where we started if we had a fast enough truck we could drive up to the front, we had great pit stops all day, got us some track position in the pits and it just shows how fast of a truck we had and how much power we had from our Roush Fenway chassis."

YOU HAD A GREAT RACE IN TEXAS WHERE YOU FINISHED THIRD AND AN EVEN BETTER RACE FROM THIS WEEKEND. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PUT THOSE TWO RACES TOGETHER? "It's important, I think. I think we're starting to build up some momentum here going forward. I feel even though we didn't have great finishes at Charlotte or Dover, we showed we were fast, we were running up to the front. We were leading both of those races when we had problems, so I feel like we've proven that in the last few races that we've got the performance and certainly have got the pit crew on pit road to be able to win these races, and hopefully we can keep that momentum going."

YOU TALK ABOUT MOMENTUM. HOW IS THAT MOMENTUM FROM THIS WEEKEND GOING TO AFFECT THE RACE THIS WEEKEND IN MILWAUKEE? "We're going to have a good truck in Milwaukee. We seemed to run there good last year, just, you know, we didn't have a lot of experience at that track. I think that's one of the more unique tracks we go to on the circuit, so I'm looking forward to having a year of experience under my belt having raced both the truck race and the Nationwide race there last year. I feel like, hopefully, I'll have a little bit of a better understanding of what it's going to be like to race there, what kind of a setup I'm going to need to have under my truck, what to do in practice to win the race."

YOU TALKED ABOUT HAVING A YEAR UNDER YOUR BELT. HOW HAS THIS YEAR BEEN DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR'S ROOKIE SEASON? "Well, for me it's just having the experience and having the confidence that these races will come to you during the course of a race. You don't have to be running at the front all of the time and you know you have to trust your pit crew guys and know that they're going to get you some spots on pit road and you just have to be confident you don't have to lead every lap. If you're good enough you'll find yourself at the end of the race in the top 10 or the top five and then you've got to capitalize on it."

YOUR PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FORD DRIVING SKILLS FOR LIFE PROGRAM LAUNCHED THIS PAST WEEKEND. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE DOING AS PART OF THAT PARTNERSHIP? "Well I'm excited to be a part of the Driving Skills for Life program. So far I know that I'm going to be going to three or four different events where I'll get to talk to the students at the events and just do a little bit of one on one speaking to them and try to get across, I guess kind of the safe driving points and things that Driving Skills for Life has to offer. Also I'm going to be doing some blogs for their website DrivingSkillsforLife.com and some more things like that."

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN FORD'S DRIVING SKILLS FOR LIFE PROGRAM? "I guess I got involved at the middle of last year, probably. I got involved with it because I was driving a Ford vehicle, obviously, in the racing series, in the Truck series and some of the people from Ford asked me if I wanted to be involved with it, and of course I said, 'Absolutely.'"

WHY DO YOU THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO TEACH TEENS ABOUT SAFE DRIVING? "I think its important just because car crashes are the number one killer of teenagers and I think its something that's important not only for teenagers, but the other people on the road. I think it's a great thing that Driving Skills for Life is trying to do by making people aware of that, by educating the kids, parents and educators about that."

WHAT IN YOUR OPINION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DRIVING SKILL ANYONE CAN HAVE? "Well, in my opinion, the biggest thing is having the focus on simply driving the vehicle. You know I think there's so many distractions in this day and age that kids can get involved with, whether it's the cell phone or playing with the radio, or talking with their friends. There's so many different distractions involved in life now. I think if you're just focused 100 percent on driving the vehicle I think you're going to be okay. I think everyone out there focused on that one single task is going to be a great driver."

-credit: ford racing

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Michigan: Mikey Kile race report
Next article Milwaukee: Round ten preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA