2-21-2008 - Good practice day at Fontana for Colin

From Ford Racing - Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 posted the sixth fastest time in Thursday's final practice at California Speedway. Braun's time made him the top rookie and Ford in the afternoon session. He is competing for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title against six other drivers this season. Qualifying for the San Bernardino County 200 takes place on Friday afternoon.

COLIN BRAUN - No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150

ON TODAY'S PRACTICE SESSIONS. "I think for me being a rookie, we put that first set of tires on when we go to a new race track and the first 10 or 15 laps are really good on the new tires. We used a set of tires learning my way around the race track and learning where to drive. By the time I got comfortable on the race track, we're 20 laps into our tire run and we can't post as fast a lap. That's why when we put the second set on, we really start to see what we have for a truck and what we have for speed, in terms of where we are on the board. We certainly for us, we are looking at race pace and race speeds when the other trucks were out there. When we were out the in the first practice, we were pretty competitive then and it just showed up on the board this afternoon."

THERE WASN'T A ROOKIE PRACTICE TODAY, DOES THAT HURT YOU AND YOUR LEARNING TIME ON THE TRACK? "I think since NASCAR gave everybody more time today in the first practice, it doesn't really hurt us. I think it may help the veterans a little more than last year because they get the extra track time. It would be great to have our own separate session. At least we were given extra tires so we could go out there and run 40 laps like we did in the first session. We can learn a lot and get me comfortable with the race track. We were still working on the truck and getting down to business in the last half of that first session and obviously final practice."

WHAT IS THE TIRE WEAR LIKE HERE? "So far, it's been good for us. We've been pretty quick on old tires and that is something we've been working hard on. My crew chief, Mike Beam has done a really good job getting our truck set-up. I think it should be really strong during the race. We were really strong on old tires, we were really strong underneath people and we can pretty much run anywhere we want on the track. We should have a good and competitive Con-way Freight Ford F-150 in the race on Saturday."