Daytona Preseason Thunder - Ford: Braun, Clanton incident quotes

FORD RACING
Preseason Thunder
January 11, 2008
Daytona International Speedway

Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Conway Trucking Ford F-150, and Joey Clanton, driver of the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford F-150, were involved in a multi-car accident that also included Kyle Busch. As a result, both teams will be packing up their equipment and heading back to North Carolina. Braun and Clanton spoke about the incident, which happened with less than an hour remaining in the afternoon session.

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JOEY CLANTON -- No. 09 Zaxby's Ford F-150

WHAT HAPPENED? "It's a veteran out there taking advantage of a rookie. It's the same old thing we hear all the time. It's Friday, the first day of practice and you don't bump draft, especially a rookie that's never done it before. He (Kyle Busch) got into Colin and got him upset through the tri-oval and that ain't the place to do it. He shoved him up the race track and we got together."

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE 51? "Yeah. There's no reason to be bump-drafting out here right now. We're out here just seeing what the trucks will do -- see how they are. It's the first day with two more to go. We're down to the last 30 minutes of practice and all we were doing was just seeing if it would go up front and go back to the back and then come in, and that happens. Two fast trucks. Now we've got to go back to the shop, cut 'em apart and go back at it again and get ready for Daytona when it comes back around in February."

HOW DID COLIN COLLECT YOU? "Evidently when the 51 caught him it got him sideways and he slid up the tri-oval and caught me and right into the wall we went. I couldn't get out of it."

WHAT NOW? "Every one of us has got one speedway (truck). We want to keep our allotment of trucks for the downforce stuff and we weren't expecting this at all, especially two of them but that's what happens. Somebody doesn't have to worry about it and doesn't care. It's the same scenario again. I think it happened last year."

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COLIN BRAUN -- No. 6 Conway Trucking Ford F-150

WHAT SPARKED THE INCIDENT? "For me the most disappointing thing is these guys have to go back and work their butts off back in the shop and fix the truck. It's really too bad that had to happen on the first day, too. We had a lot of stuff we still wanted to get through. It's good that we got some drafting practice in and got a few things knocked out of the way, and I just feel bad for the guys. It's too bad they have to go back and bust their butts for the next couple of weeks."

THE 51 GOT IN THE BACK OF YOU? "That's sure what it felt like to me, I don't know. But it sure felt like somebody got in the back of me and that truck just took off like crazy. I felt bad it was Joey up there because I knew we were coming up high. It's too bad it was my teammate, but it took off like the rear-end was up in the air or something. It was crazy."

ARE YOU GUYS DONE FOR TESTING? YOU HAVE ANOTHER 6 TRUCK HERE? "That's our year-long backup. It's not really a speedway truck, it's a backup, so we're gonna go back home and start working on our primary truck here and get that thing fixed and ready to go for the race. I think we got enough things accomplished, so we just need to go back there and get our primary truck fixed."

DID YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT THINGS TO THAT POINT? YOU WERE AT THE TOP OF THE SPEED CHART. "For sure. Right up until then everything was going great, right to plan. We were working away at the things we wanted to get done and I was getting a lot of experience drafting. It's unfortunate it had to end short like that."

-credit: ford racing