Saturday
Raybestos Rookie Zippo 200 Advance Material: Brian Scott and Colin Braun
Press Release
Colin Braun,
14thBrian Scott, 30th
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER ADVANCE MATERIAL
FOR THE ZIPPO 200
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE
AT WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL, AUGUST 6, 2010,
Raybestos Rookies Brian Scott and Colin Braun commented on a variety of topics prior to practice this afternoon at Watkins Glen. Scott leads Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 18 points (191-173) in the overall Raybestos Rookie standings entering the Zippo 200. Braun was the top Raybestos Rookie earlier this season at Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wis.), scoring an 11th-place finish.
HOW MUCH ROAD RACING EXPERIENCE DID YOU HAVE PRIOR TO ROAD AMERICA?
“I did one ARCA race in New Jersey and I’ve done some stuff in Corvettes over at Bob Bondurant. It’s such a different monster. It’s real technical. I feel like once I get more experience it’ll really be a venue I do really good at because I’m a very technical driver but I just don’t have enough experience right now to be that good. I feel like we can get a top-10 and you know if I catch on or if the track takes to my liking I think we can be a top-five and that’s really all we’re going for is just get through it. Like I said don’t make any mistakes and I think our finish will be pretty decent.”
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO BE CONSISTENT IN THIS SERIES?
“Yeah it’s difficult. We’ve gone through some internal changes and it looked like we started to develop some consistency. We finished third at Chicago, sixth at Gateway then we struggled the next week and then came right back at Iowa. We had a top-three car all night and we had brake issues. You know a lot of our inconsistency is not necessarily the setup or us, it’s mechanical. We have some issues that we’re trying to work out as a team and get better. If you threw those out we would show a lot more consistency.
We’ve got to grow as an organization. There’s obviously a lot on the plate with the new car, with the crew chief change, with just running four teams out of a Nationwide only deal and I think with given the circumstance we’re doing incredibly well. I wish we wouldn’t have fought a brake issue at Iowa. I think we would have came home with another top-five and that would have been basically three top-fives in four races. I just think Jeff Stankiewicz is doing a great job as crew chief. I feel like we’ll be pretty solid here. It’s the same car that we ran at Road America. Like I said the car had more speed than I did but I eased into it. At the end we were about a seventh-place car, just unfortunate that things happen on road courses. People overdrive, they get wheel-hopped, they get into you. Everybody really loves this place.”
“Well I did go-karts growing up as a kid all on road courses and then I started racing in that Grand-Am sports car series. I guess not a ton but I’ve got a couple of years.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN OVER THERE THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO STOCK CAR RACING?
“It’s pretty different. I think the only thing that I can apply driving this No. 16 Con-way Freight Ford Fusion is really just how the racetrack goes. I know kind of where the bumps are, what curbs you can and can’t use, little things like that. It’s no different driving these stock cars than it is driving what I’m used to driving.”
IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THE WEIGHT OF THE CARS?
“Man it’s the weight, the way they don’t slow down, the way that the brakes will fade, the way that you’ve really got to take care of these cars so that they’re good at the end. They’re so many things that are different. The size of the tire just has so much less grip than what I’ve been used to driving at a place like this.”
“You might be. I know it’s tough to try and kind of unlearn what I’ve done for the last few years that I’ve raced up here. You might be a little bit better off not having any experience but I guess at least I know where the racetrack goes and kind of in mind I have some ideas of what I’m going to try and do. I’m sure that’ll help.”
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU RACED HERE AT WATKINS GLEN?
“Off the top of my head I think I’ve raced here three times in the sports car, and that’s the Daytona Prototype car. It’s been okay for us. I think I’ve got two seconds and a win. Hopefully we can improve on that this weekend [smiles].”
DID YOU CIRCLE THE ROAD COURSE RACES ON THE NATIONWIDE SCHEDULE EARLIER THIS YEAR, THINKING THAT YOU HAD A CHANCE TO DO WELL?
“You know when the schedule came out I don’t know if I circled ‘em because I really enjoy racing on the oval stuff and learning that and trying to get better at that but these are places that I definitely felt like I could run well at and be fast at. I feel like we can and I feel like we’ve got a really good group of guys that have worked on this car. We got back from Road America, worked on it, got it better. This will be the second race that I’ve worked with Ricky Viers [crew chief] on the road course so I think we’ve got a little bit of momentum going from what we did back a couple of months ago at Road America.”
WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD WEEKEND FOR YOU?
“Man for us I think a good weekend would be a top-10, top-five finish. There’s obviously a lot of Cup guys that are dropping down to run this race and you’ve got a lot of experienced road racing guys with Boris [Said] and Ron Fellows and people like that, a lot of good guys you’re going to be racing against.”
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- Camp & Associates, Inc. Press Release
Article Tags: ARCA, ARCA Racing Series, ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards, Bob Bondurant, Braun Racing, Brian Scott, Chicagoland Speedway, Colin Braun, Gateway (Ill.) International Raceway, Jeff Stankiewicz, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NNS, No. 11 AccuDoc Solutions Toyota Camry, No. 16 Con-way Freight Ford Fusion, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ricky Viers, Road America., Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Zippo 200
