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8th place for Colin in Milwaukee
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WEST ALLIS, Wisc. – After losing the race against Mother Nature Friday night the Copart 200 rolled off Saturday afternoon under warm, sunny skies. Coming off a big win at Michigan last weekend, Colin Braun and the No. 6 Con-way Freight True LTL team were hoping to keep the momentum going. Although they were not able to capture another win, Braun did get his fifth top-10 finish of the season.

Braun started 13th based on owners’ points since qualifying was cancelled due to the rain on Friday. The truck was tight early in the race and he fell back to 17th, but then worked his way up to 10th place by lap 30. When the first caution of the race flew on lap 39 crew chief Mike Beam brought Braun down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The team had two fast stops, but a traffic jam leaving pit road only allowed Braun to gain one position in the pits.

He was ninth when the race resumed on lap 44. The truck was better with the adjustment and he was up to fifth by the halfway point at lap 100. Without a caution, many of the teams began to cycle through the pits for green-flag fuel stops around lap 120. Braun pitted for fuel on lap 122, but a caution six laps later put him a lap down. Once everyone pitted under caution, Braun restarted the race 10th, but at the tail end of the lead lap in front of the leaders. He was able to stay in front of the leaders until the next caution came on lap 144 which put him behind the leaders on the lead lap.

Braun lined up eighth when the race resumed on lap 146. With 25 laps to go he was up to fifth place and closing in on fourth. A final caution on lap 189 bunched up the field and Braun made his charge on the restart with eight laps to go. In the final laps Braun was battling Todd Bodine for fourth place. With two to go, Braun got loose inside of Bodine which forced him to fall back to 10th place. Never one to give up, Braun fought for as much track position as he could in the last two laps and finished the race in eighth place. Ron Hornaday took the win and the point lead.

“We had a pretty fast truck there at the end,” Braun said. “I just got loose under Bodine and lost some spots trying to save it. We didn’t have enough at the end of the race to challenge for the win since I think I used up a lot of our tires trying to stay ahead of the leaders when we got a lap down after the green-flag pit stop. All in all it was a good day since we came out of here with a top-10 finish. We gained a few more points and are getting closer to cracking the top 10 really soon.”

The No. 6 Con-way Freight team gained one position and is now 11th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point standings, only 18 points out of 10th place. The next race will be on Saturday, June 27 at Memphis Motorsports Park. It will be live on SPEED at 6:00 p.m. (ET).