COLIN BRAUN – No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion – YOU WERE SECOND TO MIKE SKINNER IN TODAY’S FIRST PRACTICE. IT LOOKS LIKES LAPS YESTERDAY HELPED. “I think they helped. My crew chief Eddie Pardue brought a really good No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion for us today. It’s the same car that we ran at Milwaukee and it was pretty good there. He made the body a little bit better, I think. It’s certainly a very good car for today. It turns really well, it does the things I want it to do and seems to race well. I’m excited about tonight.”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘IT DOES WHAT I WANT IT TO DO’? “For me, the biggest thing is that I want to be able to drive it hard and not have it get free. I want to have it roll in the center and turn in the center pretty good and have really good grip coming off. Those are the things that we’ve definitely got. I feel like I can drive some different lines. I feel like I’m able to pass some people here. That’s something that’s going to be important for tonight.”
ON THE RADIO, YOU SAID THE FUSION WAS A LITTLE TIGHT? “Yeah, it was a little bit tight in the center, just rolling through the center. I think this race track is going to free up tonight kind of like it did last night. So, we don’t want to make too many adjustments and changes here. I think we’re going to take it easy and be smart about what we’re going to do here.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE RACING A FUSION AND A TRUCK AT ORP? “It’s not that different. It feels like you’re sitting down a little bit lower and the wall are a little taller, but they’re not.”
LAST NIGHT THE PREFERRED GROOVE WAS THE TOP. DOES THAT APPLY HERE TODAY? “I think it will be. I think you’re going to have guys on new tires that are going to run the bottom just to get passed people on the old tires. Just a little bit of going where everybody else isn’t. I think the preferred groove is definitely the top, but at the same time, I think you can make it work on the bottom, too.”
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