Colin Braun is one of those once-in-a-while young racing talents that not only can dazzle with his skills on the race track, but off the track as well.

His shining personality and articulate manner impressed me right off the bat when we met last year at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where Braun was driving for Tracy Krohn's team.

He's made quite a name for himself over the past two years by being the youngest driver (and race winner) in the Grand Am Series, and for the smooth but aggressive driving style that earned him the Racer Magazine Rookie of the Year award in 2006.

His next stop? Roush Fenway Racing.

It was announced Wednesday that Braun had signed a developmental deal with Roush to drive Fords in the ARCA RE/MAX Series.

Braun had been a part of the GM Driver Development program last fall, and although he didn't make it to the final rounds (he struggled with the dirt track portion), he still impressed everyone involved.

Inspired by his success in the program, Braun spent nearly every weekend -- when he wasn't racing sports cars -- hanging out in the NASCAR Busch and Nextel Cup garages looking for a ride. He had been pitched a few offers, but none were what he wanted.

It was expected that Braun would sign with a GM team not only because of his close relationship with GM Racing's Alba Colon, but also because his Grand Am team is a GM team.

For whatever reason, no GM team was willing to step up to the plate and sign him -- even though there are some who could have benefited from adding Braun, who probably has more talent and potential than some current developmental drivers for one or two of those teams.

Instead, a Ford team snatched him up.

Braun will be entered in select ARCA races in 2007, where he'll share a ride with RFR driver Erik Darnell. Braun then is expected to compete for Rookie of the Year honors as well as the ARCA RE/MAX Series championship in 2008, with an eventual move into NASCAR's three premier series shortly thereafter.

"Colin has shown a tremendous amount of promise in the Grand Am series, and we're looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish in stock cars," Jack Roush said. "Colin is a young driver who has shown potential both on and off the track, and we're happy that he will be part of Roush Fenway Racing going forward."

Roush and RFR president Geoff Smith are known for throwing big money at young drivers, getting them to sign long-term deals. However, that big money usually doesn't increase in the same manner in which other teams structure their driver deals, and in a few years RFR drivers find themselves being paid proportionally less than drivers on other race teams.

Roush has had his fair share of success stories in recent years with young drivers like Carl Edwards, David Ragan and Darnell. But he's also had a couple of misses with Todd Kluever and Danny O'Quinn Jr.

Undoubtedly the big story here is that after a history of losing many of their own developmental drivers to other manufacturers (Kasey Kahne is probably the best known example), Ford has been able to reverse the trend.

But before Braun gets to tackle the short tracks, dirt tracks and superspeedways of the ARCA series, he'll continue with his day job, driving sports cars. Next up is the Six Hours of the Glen with the Grand Am Series this weekend and then on to the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16-17, where Braun will pilot a Ferrari 430 in the GT class with his Krohn Racing teammates.