4-19-2008

MEXICO CITY – During a recent road course test, reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Carl Edwards was stunned – and more than a little embarrassed – to have his best lap time soundly beaten by 19-year-old Colin Braun.

Puzzled, he turned to fellow driver Boris Said and asked what Braun was doing to top Edwards’ time by an entire second.

Said, a noted road-course expert himself, faced Edwards and replied: “He’s the best I’ve ever seen.”

Braun, driving a Roush Fenway Racing Ford, backed up that assertion on Saturday afternoon, posting a lap of 102.756 mph to take the pole for Sunday’s Corona Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City.

Despite attempting to make just his third career Nationwide race and having to qualify for the event based on his speed, Braun beat out a talented field of series regulars and road-course aces – including favorite Scott Pruett – for the top spot.

Braun is a rookie in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he is 20th in points. But road-course racing is his true area of expertise, and the former Grand-Am driver could see his biggest spotlight yet in Mexico City.

“I just think he’s unbelievable,” Edwards said. “I believe he is the guy to beat [Sunday] in this race.”

Responded Braun: “I’m sure I’ll be getting an invoice in the mail from Boris and Carl here pretty soon to say those good things about me. I don’t know how much the pole pays, but I hope it’s enough to cover that.”

Pruett – fastest in Friday’s practice sessions – was second at 102.651 mph after his Chip Ganassi Racing team over-adjusted on the car in an attempt to loosen it up.

“Unfortunately, I just couldn’t drive the car the way I wanted to,” Pruett said.

Edwards (Roush Fenway) was third, followed by Marcos Ambrose (JTG Racing) and Said, driving for Team Rensi Motorsports.

Kyle Busch, winner of two straight Nationwide Series events, was sixth-fastest for Joe Gibbs Racing. Patrick Carpentier (Gillett Evernham Motorsports), points leader Clint Bowyer (Richard Childress Racing), Jason Keller (CJM Racing) and TW Motorsports’ Antonio Perez – the highest-qualifying Mexican driver – rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying was more dramatic than on oval tracks, thanks to a European-style format that placed six cars on the track at one time. The cars were ordered by their speeds from the final practice, meaning the pole swapped hands eight times – including twice in the final group – and was not decided until Pruett’s second lap was beaten by Braun’s just seconds later.

You can listen to the press conference at www.Con-wayracing.com or read it below.

COLIN, CARL WAS JUST IN HERE AND SAID YOU WERE THE MAN TO BEAT TOMORROW AND HAD GREAT THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOUR COACHING OF HIM. TELL US ABOUT THAT AND YOUR RUN TODAY. “First off, I really don’t think I’ve helped Carl too much. We went and tested at VIR about a month ago. Carl helped me out quite a bit, both Carl and Boris Said were there and those guys taught me a lot about road course racing and really helped get me up to speed in these cars. I know, obviously, a little bit about road course racing, but certainly not like those guys do in these stock cars. They helped me out quite a bit and really taught me a lot. I’m really thankful for those guys to help me out. Them helping me has started to dry-out a bit when we’re faster than them. Those guys are great guys and I’ve learned a lot from them. I don’t really think I’ve taught Carl anything, so if he wants to say that, that’s fine. I’m not going to complain. Our run today was really good. The whole 3M Ford Fusion team did a great job. My crew chief Eddie Pardue worked on our car pretty hard last night and made a few little adjustments to it and obviously was a little bit faster today. We ended up being second quickest overall [yesterday] and it was great to end up on the pole here. Those guys worked their butts off and I’m really proud of that whole team. We had a good test at VIR and we ran through a whole bunch of changes, got here yesterday and ran through a whole other bunch of changes. They’ve been working really hard and they definitely deserve to be on the pole here for how hard and for how much work those guys had put in. I’m just proud to be up here with the Ford Fusion car – it’s awesome.”

CARL TOLD THE MEDIA THE STORY OF VIR AND HOW YOU WERE A SECOND FASTER THAN HIM. THEN BORIS MENTIONED YOU WERE THE BEST HE’S EVER SEEN. HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT? “I’m sure I’ll be getting an invoice in the mail from Boris and Carl, here pretty soon to say those good things about me. Hopefully, I can afford it. I don’t know how much the pole pays, but hopefully, it’s enough to cover that. Those guys, they just helped me out a lot. I don’t really know what to respond to that. It’s obviously really nice that those guys say about me and I really appreciate that, but I’m just trying to sit here and learn as much as I can from those guys and just soak it all in. Those guys have done this for so long and have so much experience that I know I have a lot to learn, obviously, this being my first year in stock car racing. If Carl thinks I can help him out here on the road course, then I can go and pick his brain on the oval stuff, that’s going to be a great deal for me.”

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU CAN TAKE FROM YOUR ROLEX SPORTS CAR RACING EXPERIENCE AND PLUG INTO THIS, IF ANY? “That race was obviously a really fun race. I qualified on the pole for that as well and led my whole stint, basically. I think a little bit just about how this race track changes during the day and what kind of car we’re going to have to have going into the race for tomorrow. We have time to make a few final adjustments on it before the race starts. I guess you have to be real smart about what the race track is going to do. I know Scott Pruett is obviously racing in that race this year. He’ll know a little bit better about what it’s going to do. I think a little bit of that and just a little bit the way these races tend to go here, where people can pass and where people get held up in traffic and things like that, I think, are going to come into play a little bit. Racing against guys like Carl and Boris who have done this same race here for the last three or four years. It’s going to be hard to make up that, but certainly it’s going to be better than never being here before.”

IF THERE WERE ANY DOUBTS THAT YOU COULD BE GOOD IN A STOCK CAR IN A ROAD RACE, THEY’VE ALL BEEN LIFTED. WOULD YOU BE MORE INTERESTED NOW TO RACE IN SONOMA OR THE GLEN IN THE CUP CAR, IF THE CALL WERE TO BE MADE? “If the opportunity presented itself, I’d love to go do that. I’m a race car driver. I love driving race cars. It’s something I really enjoy and if I can do it every single weekend of my life, I’d be doing it. If I could do it every day, I’d be doing it. The more racing, the more driving I can do, the better. We’ll see what happens. Nothing has ever been brought up about that. I’m just focused on driving my No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 truck in the Craftsman Truck Series and we’re trying to as good of a job there as we can and win as many races as we can, and gain as much experience as we can. I’m just focused 100 percent on that. Then going to Nashville a couple of weeks ago in the Nationwide car and coming here this weekend in the Nationwide car, those have been my big focuses and whatever else happens, happens.”

DID YOU EXPECT TO BE ON THE POLE? “Coming into this race, I thought just because how good the car is that the people at Roush Fenway build, how much power we have from the Ford guy and the people at Roush Yates, I thought there was definitely the possibility that we could have the pole here. It just depended on how close our set-up was when we got down here and how well I could drive it. Again, it goes to the hard work those guys have done. We started out here yesterday and we were a little bit off. We weren’t where we needed to be and it’s great to have a good crew chief like Eddie Pardue who has a bunch of notes stored up. We can run through the notes and look back through the changes that we made before and put those on the car. Obviously, it worked out pretty well for us today.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN. “First of all, congratulations to Colin. That’s great for him to put a Ford Fusion on the pole here. Him and Boris Said are my road course coaches and Colin has been helping us out a lot. I was really proud of my guys for having the car as fast as it was. We did not make a run yesterday. I just didn’t know how fast we were going to be able to go, but I was very pleased with the lap. I believe this is my best qualifying effort here at Mexico. I’m very proud of my guys and I’m excited to start third. That’s going to be great.”

WHAT IMPRESSES YOU SO MUCH ABOUT COLIN BRAUN? “There’s a couple of things that impress me about Colin. Number one, he’s a really nice person. I’m very lucky with the teammates that I have and I think Colin is a great addition. And he’s just unbelievably fast in a road course car. When we went and tested at VIR, Boris [Said] is the one who has helped so much. Boris and Colin and I tested there and I put down what I thought were some good laps for me. I’ve been to VIR a few times and he [Braun] went out and race a second faster. And I was embarrassed and upset. I told Boris, ‘Man, what’s he doing?’ And Boris looked at me and said, ‘He’s the best I’ve ever seen.’ So, I’m leaning on Colin now and he’s a guy that I’ve gone to just lately and he’s agreed to help me out with my road course racing. I just think he’s unbelievable. I believe he is the guy to beat tomorrow in this race.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL IN MEASURING YOURSELF UP AGAINST SOMEBODY LIKE COLIN BRAUN AND SCOTT PRUETT? “I tell you what, I don’t like qualifying third. I want to be on the pole. But I am very aware how good those guys are and it makes me feel really good to be able to put a lap down that’s comparable to theirs and be up there, Because I do have a lot of respect for what they’ve done. I pay attention when we’re out here. Guys like Scott Pruett and Carpentier and Boris and Colin and all those guys, they’re experts at this. So, I try to learn everything I can from them. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t proud of running that lap. To be that fast today, that was good.”

YOU’VE BEEN SAYING THAT COLIN HAS BEEN HELPING YOU WITH YOUR ROAD COURSE STUFF, HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THE SAME WITH OVALS? “Our deal is, I can lean on him for road courses stuff and he’s going to lean on me for the oval stuff. But I haven’t seen him race too much on an oval. He might not need any help. I tell you what – he’s one smart kid. Definitely, very smart, very humble and he’s going to be very tough to beat. I think he has a really bright future.”