Roush announced Colin Braun

Colin Braun

Roush Fenway Racing announced Colin Braun will drive the No. 6 Ford F-150 in the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Braun talks about his sponsor Con-way Freight and his transition from sports cars to stock cars.

COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 – CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING DRIVING THE No. 6 TRUCK FOR 2008. "Thank you very much. I'm really excited about it. I'm really looking forward to driving for such a great team and have a great sponsor."

YOU'VE BEEN IN THE ROUSH TRUCK THIS YEAR FOR ONE RACE, TALK ABOUT RACING A FULL SEASON. "I'm going to be driving the No. 6 truck next year full time next year for Roush Fenway Racing and Con-way Freight. I'm very excited about it. I'll be working with guys like Mike Beam [crew chief] and the entire number 6 crew. Those are a great group of guys. They've got a lot of experience and they've certainly had quite a few good drivers go through that program. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from everybody at Con-way Freight and the number 6 truck."

WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE IN ROAD RACING THROUGHOUT THE YEARS, NOW YOU'VE DECIDED TO GO OVAL RACING EVERY WEEK. "Absolutely, doing the sports car racing was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and had a great relationship with the team I was driving for. We really had a lot of fun. But driving these stock cars is something I'm really enjoying. I'm learning about these ovals and how these stock cars work and how to set them up for a long run. I'm having a blast learning everything from all the great guys at Roush Fenway and the people at Ford as well. I'm learning so much and I'm really enjoying that process."

DOES COMING FROM SPORTS CAR RACING WITH AN ENCLOSED CAPSULE MAKE IT EASIER TO TRANSITION INTO STOCK CARS? "I think there are similarities and for me, I've always focused on driving the four tires on the race car. Whatever kind of race car it is. I'm always making sure those four tires are always on the edge and driving those cars hard. So, it just takes a little bit to figure out the relationship between your body and the feeling that you're getting and the tires. Once you figure that out, I think it makes it easier. Everybody at Ford, Roush Fenway Racing and Con-way Freight have been making the whole process a lot easier. It's going to be something with a lot to learn as a rookie but everyone at the number 6 team has a lot of faith in me and certainly I have a lot of faith in them. I'm looking forward to it."

TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS IN YOUR RACING CAREER. "I started out racing quarter-midgets when I was five and I won a bunch of races there. Then moved to go-karts when I was eight through 13. I went and raced all over the world. I raced a bunch of races in Italy, Monaco, Japan, England, France and all over racing go-karts. I won a lot of races and learned a lot of things. I had a lot of good experiences going to foreign countries. After that I did two years of open-wheel racing on the west coast. I won two championships there back-to-back and I learned a lot in that series as well. Then I got the chance from our success in the open wheel series to drive sports cars. I raced sports cars for one year off and on, just racing in a bunch of different series – open wheel races, the Pro-Mazda Series, some sports car races and kind of bounced and did a bunch of different things. Then I had the opportunity to run a full season with Krohn Racing in a Daytona Prototype Rolex Series for two years. I almost won the championship the first year and won a bunch of races. I learned a lot there and had fun racing sports cars. Now I'm looking forward to driving the number 6 truck next year."

WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE HEADING INTO THE TRUCK SERIES WITH A LOT OF DRIVERS WITH PLENTY OF EXPEREINCE? HOW IS YOUR APPROACH? "I think it's one of those things that when we get to the race track, we're focused on the goals that we've set. Having Mike Beam as my crew chief, he's really going to help set the mood of the entire team and set my strategy and framework as we go into each weekend. That's going to be an ever-sliding scale of what our goals are for each weekend. It's certainly something as a team that we are going to work on and set the whole plan of what will happen. We'll go out there to do a good job and learn a lot. With me out there in the truck, I want to learn a lot. Mike Beam will teach me a lot. I think it will be one of those things where we'll go out there, keep our heads down and do a good job. We're focused on doing 100% of our abilities. If we do that, we'll have good results."

NEXT YEAR'S FIRST RACE IS ON THE SUPER SPEEDWAY OF DAYTONA. YOU'VE RUN DAYTONA, BUT MOSTLY ON THE ROAD COURSE. "Absolutely. It's going to be a big different. I drove the ARCA race at Talladega, so I have a little super speedway experience. This will be my second super speedway race ever. So I'm certainly looking forward to going there and practice and make as many friends as I can. I know the other Ford teams will be out there wanting to help as well. It should be a good weekend for us."

HOW MUCH TESTING ARE YOU GOING TO DO IN THE OFF SEASON? "We're going to do as much as we can. We're going to give all the people at Roush Fenway the time to get the trucks prepared and everything in order there. I think we have three or four days scheduled for testing already. We're looking to add more days. Certainly every lap that I get will help me out more and more and help the whole team build a relationship before we go to Daytona."

TALK ABOUT CON-WAY FREIGHT AS YOUR SPONSOR. "It's great that the Con-way Freight people have invested all the efforts to invest in the 6 team. It's something where I've never had a real sponsor before and I'm looking forward to working with all the people at Con-way Freight, learn their customers and meet all their people. It's going to be something that I'm really going to enjoy, going out to the suites and meet all the people that come to the race track. I'm a big fan of racing as well, so it will be fun to talk to all those people as well."

WHO IS YOUR MENTOR AT ROUSH FENWAY RACING? "The great thing about driving for a team like Roush Fenway is that it's an organization much like Con-way in that it's a family oriented deal. Everybody wants to help everybody out. When I have a question for any one of the Roush Fenway drivers from Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle or Carl Edwards, any of those guys, the just want to help out. It's something where I'd say I don't have just one mentor but I have six or seven guys that want to help me out. That just makes it a lot easier for me. That's what's great about these guys."

HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY ADVICE FROM JACK ROUSH? "Jack has told me to go out there and make as many laps and don't mess up the truck. So, that's been our goal this year from the five races that I've done. We want to make all the laps and bring the car or truck in one piece and bring it back home. Because they want to have me gain all the experience that I can and if I crash on lap 50, I'm losing 50 up to 150 of experience that I could have gained. That's been our biggest goal this year to finish all the laps and that's something that Jack has told me this year."