Concord, N.C. (October 10, 2007)
– Roush Fenway Racing’s newest driver, 19-year old Colin Braun, will
race the No. 50 F-150 at Martinsville Speedway on October 20, 2007.
This will be Braun’s first Craftsman Truck Series start.
“The goals are the same as they were in all the
ARCA races, to finish all the laps and get as much experience as I
can,” said Braun. “I’m looking forward to getting out there and
driving the No. 50 F-150. There will be a lot to learn and I will
need to give a lot of room to the drivers who will want to push me
around a little bit, but I will certainly do that. I want to make
all the laps I can and gain as much experience as I can. I’m
looking forward to racing against guys like Travis Kvapil and Erik
Darnell, I think I’ll learn a lot from them.”
The announcement comes on the heels of Braun’s
impressive ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Talladega Superspeedway where
he qualified third and finished ninth after leading his first career
laps in a stock car. Braun has three ARCA starts on his resume
never finishing outside the top-10. In his first career ARCA start,
Braun impressed Roush Fenway brass by qualifying 13th and finishing
ninth then followed that up with a fifth place qualifying effort and
third place finish at Chicagoland.
“Colin has done everything we’ve asked him to
do,” said Roush Fenway general manager, Max Jones. “The goal at the
beginning of every race has been to finish every lap and learn as
much as possible and that’s exactly what he’s done. He’s one of the
hardest working drivers I’ve seen in a while. He’s in the shop,
watching practices, participating in pit practice, talking to our
other drivers, just trying to learn as much as possible and that
shows. We feel like he’ll do a good job for us in the truck at
Martinsville.”
In his short tenure with Roush Fenway, Braun has
been a keen observer of how the Craftsman Truck Series works and
he’s relied on the advice of fellow teammates to help him make the
transition from road course to oval racing.
“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from
watching the truck races is that you don’t have to run at the front
all the time.” Braun continued, “I think the key to success will be
to use the first few pit stops to get the truck handling really well
and work with John Quinn (crew chief, No. 50 F-150) to get any
issues sorted out. Then from the last pit stop forward its time to
go racing and hopefully, if we’ve all done our jobs, we will have
the best truck by the end of the race.”