At the ripe old age of 21, Colin Braun is starting to Get It.
Braun, the second-year driver of the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 out of the Roush Fenway Racing stables, had a sensational month of June in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Braun scored one victory, two top-five and four top-10 finishes in four races last month, a clear sign he's coming to understand what it takes to compete in NASCAR.
On Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, he'll try to keep his hot streak going at Kentucky Speedway in the Built Ford Tough 225 Truck Series race.
Watch the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Live! on SPEED this Saturday from Kentucky Speedway at 7 pm ET and the NCWTS Setup with Krista Voda at 6:30 pm ET
"It would be nice to win a race that's sponsored by our manufacturer, and if we can keep moving ourselves up in the points, that's always a good thing," said Braun. "I think the best way for us to do that is to go out there and win a race, so hopefully we can do it."
More than that, even, he'll look to continue the positive trajectory of his career and his 2009 season. In his first year in the Truck Series, Braun captured Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors and finished a respectable 13th in points. This time out, he's climbed from 20th to 10th in points over the last four races. Now, he's just 101 points out of the top five.
"It's definitely been one of those up-and-down kind of seasons," said Braun. "If we could have a couple of different races back, we could have two or three wins by this time. You have a couple of those races back, and you're looking at being in the top two or three in points, and certainly looking at being a top contender for the championship."
So now, it's time for Braun to makes sure the speed inherent in his Roush Fenway Fords translates into solid finishes every time out.
"Our goal was to just get in the top 10 (in NCWTS points) by the end of the year," said Braun. "We fought our way up into the top 10, and now we have to set our sights on moving into the top five. I think we can do that, being 100 points out is still quite a few points, but if we can have these consistent top-10, top-five finishes, and just keep knocking these out, I know that's going to be a good deal. Five or six races out from now, I hope we can be in the top five."
First things first. On Saturday at Kentucky Speedway, Braun will have to overcome the tricky pavement at the 1.5-mile track.
"It seems like Kentucky, just from watching the last round of the Nationwide race from there this year, it seems like it really got bumpy during the off-season," Braun said. "I suspect we're going to be fighting to get our truck to stay down in the race track and not be bouncing around all over the place. I suspect that's what we're going to be working with."
One thing in Braun's favor is that this weekend he'll be in the same Ford F-150 that he drove to a third-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
"It's cool to be able to take the same truck that we raced in Texas, or that we raced anywhere, and be able to bring it to the next race track with a little bit of massaging," said Braun. "It's one of the things that I figured out in the little bit here, it's nice to be able to bring the same race truck to a couple different race tracks and keep working on it instead of destroying it and having to build it back to maybe where you had it before. This way we can keep making our trucks better and better, it's certainly nice to be able to do that."
Watch the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Live! on SPEED this Saturday from Kentucky Speedway at 7 pm ET and the NCWTS Setup with Krista Voda at 6:30 pm ET
