Braun Ready to Tackle Martinsville

Colin Braun, driver of the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150, returns to Martinsville Speedway with confidence after the mid-March testing session. Braun debuted in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the fall Martinsville race in 2007, where he started 22^nd and finished 34^th after a flat tire sent him into wall.

COLIN BRAUN - No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 -TALK ABOUT RETURNING TO MARTINSVILLE, THE SITE OF YOUR NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES DEBUT. "I'm excited to go back to Martinsville. We had a great test down there a couple of weeks ago. The Con-way Freight Ford F-150 was super fast in testing and we were in the top two or three almost every session. We were really pleased with that. We had a lot of good things accomplished that week and we learned a lot. We went back to the shop and looked through all the notes we had. I think we're going to go to the track with a truck that is going to be pretty darn fast right off the truck. We had a good run last year. We were just kind of cruising around there. Certainly, I have a little bit faster truck this year going back. I think we'll be a little bit more of a threat and I have to balance the abuse the veteran guys are going to give me and also give it back a little bit. We'll see how things go."

LAST WEEK YOU RACED IN NASHVILLE, CAN YOU APPLY ANYTHING FROM THE NATIONWIDE SERIES TO THE TRUCK SERIES? "For me, every lap that I do in any kind of stock car helps. The more laps I can do, the more comfortable I feel. I don't know if Nashville has a lot of similarities to Martinsville, but I'm getting more and more comfortable in stock cars. Things like getting more used to getting on and off pit road, doing pit stops and those sort of things are always helpful for me getting more comfortable in the whole environment. Every time we race, I get more comfortable in the truck. In Atlanta, I felt comfortable and unfortunately we had a few things that didn't go our way. We had a fast truck. The crew chiefs, both Mike Beam in the truck and Eddie Pardue in the Nationwide car, have taught me a lot over the last few weeks."

DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS HEADING INTO MARTINSVILLE? "I think that we've showed that we are pretty fast in the truck. We haven't quite had the finishes that we wanted to have. All the pieces are there for us to be successful; we just have to put everything together and we'll have good results."

WHAT ARE YOU GOALS FOR THIS WEEKEND? "This week in Martinsville, our goal is to finish. Obviously, being a rookie, it is going to be tough. We have a fast truck, so I think people are going to have to respect it just because it's fast. If we were going to anywhere other than Martinsville, I'd say our goal would be a top-15 or top-10 run. But going to Martinsville, anything can happen. I think being a rookie, I'm going to be one of the first guys to get used up. The goal at Martinsville is try to finish and try to figure out how to not get wrecked and not get punted around."

DO YOU THINK MARTINSVILLE IS A PLACE WHERE TRACK POSITION OR HANDLING IS IMPORTANT? "I think, for us, it's a bit of track position and a bit of handling. It's really 50-50 there. We have a fast truck and we worked real hard on doing some qualifying runs there. I think we did more qualifying runs than anybody else, just to get me comfortable doing that. I think that will pay off in the long run."