The 2008 NACAR Craftsman Truck Series season kicked off with pre-season testing at Daytona International Speedway, January 11-13.  Colin Braun and the No. 6 Con-way Freight team headed to Daytona with a fast truck and a plan to get the most out of the three-day test.  Unfortunately, the plan ended after the first day.

The teams began with single-car runs Friday morning and by the lunch break, Braun had posted the second-fastest time (176.790 mph), just behind his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Erik Darnell.  During the afternoon session, teams began drafting practice.  Typically that does not begin until the second, or third day, but with the threat of bad weather the remainder of the test most teams opted to start early.

Braun was doing well and not only keeping up with the fast draft, but passing veterans like Mike Skinner.  Late in the day while running in the draft, Braun got the air taken off his truck, which put him into the side of teammate, Joey Clanton.  Luckily neither driver was injured, but the damage to the Con-way Ford F-150 was too severe to fix at the track.

"Our Con-way F-150 was really good all day," Braun said.  "We were fast on our single-car runs and drafting practice was going really well too.  I was able to run with some pretty fast guys like Mike Skinner, and was able to pass them too.  Going into the tri-oval I got the air taken off me by another truck and I got into Joey (Clanton).  The damage to my truck is mainly on the right side and front clip, so we decided to get the truck back to the shop immediately to start working on it.

"It's still going to be a fast truck when we bring it back in February, but now the guys are going to have to work even harder to get it ready.  I feel bad about that, but they told me that's the nature of the beast at places like Daytona."

Braun and the team will test again at Atlanta Motor Speedway, January 22 and 23, before heading back to Daytona for the season-opening race on Friday, February 15.