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2010 NASCAR Preseason Thunder Daytona Fan Fest: An Interview with Colin Braun
January 16th, 2010

DENISE MALOOF: Moving right along, we have the Roush Fenway NASCAR Nationwide Series Colin Braun. Quick synopsis going into 2010, hopes, dreams, impatience, ready to get on the track?

COLIN BRAUN: I'm certainly excited about it, having Conway Freight come and step up to the Nationwide Series is going to be a lot of fun. Racing Ricky all year is going to be fun, and goals are definitely to try and win that Rookie of the Year championship like I did in the Truck Series, you know, and having a really good crew chef in Eddie Pardue a bunch of hard-working guy is I think going to help get us to that dream.

Q: With only three full-time double duty drivers, Cup and Nationwide in the series this year, with Kyle [Busch] not defending his championship, at least as he says now, do you guys view that as a real opportunity for you guys to make a statement? And when are we going to see another Nationwide Series driver win the championship as opposed to a Cup guy?

COLIN BRAUN: Well, I think even though Kyle is not going to come back and defend his championship, I think you're still going to see a lot of Cup drivers in the Nationwide races on the companion events for sure. So I think that's good. I enjoy racing against those guys, certainly in the Truck Series when those guys would come and race, I felt like it was really good. It taught you a lot and you got to race against the guys that were the best in the business and learn from them. Looking forward to doing the same thing in the Nationwide Series I think is going to be a big help.

Q: Question. It's going to be like going in two different directions, I apologize. First off, your two programs aren't fully sponsored for the season, so if you can take us inside the walls of the organization, is there optimism? Is it no big deal, although it is a big deal? What's that like in terms of how that's looked at within your walls?

COLIN BRAUN: Well, I think there's certainly a lot of optimism. Those guys are working really hard trying to find sponsors. I think they've been close on a couple different deals for both of our programs. I feel like they're doing a really good job and working hard at it, and once we get racing and get a couple of couple races into the season, I think that's going to help a lot more, if we don't have anybody signed up by then. I know it's something they're definitely working at hard, and I'm sure they'll be sponsored by somebody.

Another thing I forgot to mention. It's neat to have a great team owner like Jack Roush come out and say, look, we're going to run these cars whether they have a sponsor for those races or not. I think that shows what kind of person Jack is, and certainly it's nice for young drivers like myself and Ricky to have somebody like that sitting there saying we're going to run these no matter what. I think that helps show sponsors that he's obviously serious about it and has confidence in us.

Q: Who is the favorite for the Rookie of the Year battle, and what do you think that championship might turn on? What's going to be the key point of the season?

COLIN BRAUN: I don't really know who the favorite would be. I guess that's--it might be a good media poll or something, I don't know. But I think it's going to be a lot of fun to race with Ricky throughout the year I feel like, and I think it's going to be certainly--it'll be a good close battle I'm sure until the end.

Q: Where do you think your biggest learning curves will be in the Nationwide car?

COLIN BRAUN: Well, I think for me one of the biggest things is just learning who I'm racing with and how those guys race. I'm used to the Truck Series where those guys race pretty intense and it's pretty cutthroat all the time, where I think the Nationwide Series is a little bit like that, but I think a lot of those guys seem to be a little bit more laid back till the end of the race. Obviously the last 20 laps are going to be cutthroat, but I think you may not have quite as much intensity just because those races are longer and you get more of a chance to work on your cars, where the truck deal, you get behind early on in the race, and it's tough to make it back up. So I think that lends itself to making really hard, tough racing throughout the whole event.

I think the biggest thing is going to be kind of figuring out how those races go just from kind of a consistency and flow standpoint and learning how to race those guys.

DENISE MALOOF: Good job. We look forward to watching you this year.

-source: nascar