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Colin is 3rd at Nashville after fighting tight truck
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LEBANON, Tenn. – Although he was not able to get the prized guitar trophy Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway, Colin Braun did claim his fourth top-five finish of the season. Braun fought a tight truck most of the night, but came on strong at the end to finish the race third.

Braun started the 150-lap race on the outside of the front row, after rain delayed the start slightly. Within the first few laps he said his No. 6 Con-way Freight True LTL Ford F-150 was tight in the center of the corners and off. He fell back to ninth place before he could pit for new tires and adjustments during a competition caution on lap 37. He gained two positions in the pits and restarted the race in seventh place on lap 42.
The truck was still tight and he fell back to 10th place within a few laps of the restart. Once the race finally got a long green-flag run the truck seemed to get better and Braun worked his way back up to sixth by the halfway point at lap 75.

A caution for debris on lap 85 brought Braun to the pits for the final time of the night. The crew gave him four tires, fuel, air pressure and wedge adjustments. He returned to the track in seventh place but fell back to ninth within a few laps because the truck was too tight on short runs.

By lap 106 the race went green for what the teams thought would be the final time. The truck was pretty good and Braun was back up to seventh place with 25 laps to go. He kept gaining track position and passed Matt Crafton for fifth place with 15 laps to go. With 10 to go he was closing in on Todd Bodine for fourth and got by him on lap 147. It looked as though he would finish fourth as the top-three trucks were too far ahead to catch in three laps. As luck would have it, a caution came out the next lap.

The race resumed with a green-white-checker finish. On the final lap of the race Braun got by pole-sitter Timothy Peters to finish third. Ron Hornaday won the race, his fifth consecutive win, and Brian Scott was second.

“We had a pretty fast truck by the end of the race,” Braun said. “We worked on it all night and being in clean air at the end really made a difference. I was pretty excited when that last caution came out since there was no way I could have caught the top-three guys otherwise. I was able to get by Peters for third on the last lap. We had a pretty good race there at the end, and it was a lot of fun. We needed another solid finish like this to gain some points back.”

The No. 6 Con-way Freight True LTL team gained one position and is now ninth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point standings. The next race will be on Wednesday, August 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It will be live on SPEED at 8:00 p.m. (ET).