Top-10 Finish Slips Away From Braun In The Closing Laps At Gateway

MADISON, Ill. (September 12, 2009) – Colin Braun started from the first position Saturday in Gateway, but unfortunately did not end up there. After fighting his way back up through the field from spin earlier in the race, Braun was in ninth place with seven laps to go when he got caught in an accident that ended his day prematurely with a 19th-place finish.

Braun collected his third pole of the season at Gateway International Raceway and led the first lap of the race before point-leader Ron Hornaday got by him. He settled into second place until his first pit stops of the race on laps 41 and 42. The Con-way Freight team had a fast 13.6-second stop for tires which put Braun out of the pits first, but varying pit strategies placed him third on the track for the restart on lap 46.

The truck was fast and Braun ran third behind Hornaday and Todd Bodine until a caution for debris on lap 77. He pitted again for four tires, fuel and slight air pressure and wedge adjustments. He was fourth when the race resumed on lap 81.

Braun moved up to third and the team made their final stop of the race for fuel on lap 98. Since some teams did not pit, so he was seventh for the restart with 58 laps to go. While running sixth a few laps later, Braun was on the inside of Matt Crafton's truck going into turn two when he suddenly got loose and spun. He pitted so the team could change tires and fix the minor damage to the right side of the truck. He returned to the track in 17th place on lap 113.

Never one to give up, Braun started picking off his competitors one by one, and was back in the top 10 with 21 laps to go. He moved into ninth on lap 146 and was running lap times as fast as the leaders. Another caution for debris with 10 laps to go set the field up for a single-file restart on lap 153. Crafton got into Bodine going into turn one, which sent Bodine through the grass. As his truck came back up the track Braun had nowhere to go to avoid Bodine and was put in the wall. The damage to the No. 6 Con-way Freight True LTL Ford was too severe to continue, which resulted in a 19th-place finish. Mike Skinner won the race after NASCAR penalized Crafton one lap for aggressive driving when he had an altercation with Hornaday on the next restart.

"The first spin was my fault," Braun said. "I just got loose under Crafton and brushed the wall. The guys did a great job of getting me back out there and our truck was still really fast. We could have had a top-10 finish but on that last restart they got three wide. I heard my spotter say there was a spin in front of me and I went high to try to avoid it since I couldn't see. The next thing I knew Bodine's truck was sliding up the track into me. It was pretty disappointing considering how good our truck was today. I hate it for everyone at Con-way Freight, Ford and this team."

The No. 6 Con-way Freight True LTL team remains sixth in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point standings, and is now only 17 points out of fifth place. The next race will be on Saturday, September 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It will be live on SPEED at 3:00 p.m. (ET).