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Braun And No. 16 Team Put Together Best Run Of Season

photo by Action Sports Photography, Inc.

FORT WORTH, Texas (April 19, 2010) – After waiting through two rain delays, the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway was finally completed on Monday afternoon.  Colin Braun again had to qualify the No. 16 Con-way Freight Ford on time and did so, starting the O’Reilly Challenge in the eleventh spot.   Braun fought a tight handling race car through the first half of the race, but the Con-way Freight team continued to make adjustments to the car and finished 13th; the team’s highest finish of the season.

By the mandated competition caution at lap 25, Braun had expressed that his car was tight off of the corners and under the caution, crew chief Eddie Pardue prescribed changes to help free the car up.  The changes helped at first, but as the laps wore on, the car continued to tighten up again.  Under a lap 66 caution, Pardue made more of the same adjustments from the previous stop on the Con-way Freight car and Braun restarted in 16th on lap 74.

The rookie continued to flirt with breaking into the top-15 and was scored 16th when green flag pit stops began on lap 130.  Braun brought the No. 16 down pit road on lap 134 for a few more changes and by lap 148 he was in 15th after pit stops cycled through.  Unfortunately, Braun and teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fell a lap down during the pit sequence, but were both hot on the tail of leader Kyle Busch to regain their spots on the lead lap.  While the teammates were racing each other hard for the Lucky Dog spot, the two made contact which sent the No. 6 car to the garage.

Under the ensuing caution, Braun brought his car down pit road one final time for fresh tires and fuel, as he was running lap times similar to the leaders and no adjustments were necessary.  After receiving the Lucky Dog award to get back on the lead lap, Braun restarted in 14th on lap 173.  During the last 27 laps, Braun caught and passed the No. 99 of Trevor Bayne to capture 13th position, where he would finish the race.

“This was a really great run for us today, one that we desperately needed to get under our belt,” Braun said after the race.  “I do feel really bad about the contact with Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.).  We were both racing so hard for that Lucky Dog spot and I just got a little tight there.  I’m hopeful it’s something we can talk about and put in the past.  We had some pretty good stops today and I think this is a finish this team can build on and head to Talladega feeling good about.”

Kyle Busch went on to win his fifth consecutive race at Texas Motor Speedway followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano, Reed Sorensen, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.  Braun was the highest finishing rookie at Texas and is tied for third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings with teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr.