Colin Braun, driver of the No. 16 Con-way Freight Mustang, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 17 Citifinancial Mustang, were Ford’s representatives during today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series test session at Talladega Superspeedway. The test marked the first on-track appearance for Mustang since it was unveiled three weeks ago at Roush Fenway Racing headquarters in Concord, NC.
COLIN BRAUN – No. 16 Con-way Freight Mustang – WHAT’S IT LIKE TO FINALLY GET IN THIS MUSTANG ON A RACE TRACK? “It feels great. I think all the hype during the announcement was obviously exciting and I think that just builds up to come here to the race track. Ford has done a great job with this Mustang and I’m just having a fun time working with it. Right now, it’s driving really good. I think once you get out there and do some drafting it might change a little bit, but as of right now everything is good and we’re working on trying some different things.” WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE OUT THERE ONE CAR AT A TIME WHEN YOU’RE NOT DRAFTING? “I think it’s definitely more boring than a place like Texas or Michigan – something like that where you’ve really got to drive these cars – but it’s still fun and it’s something that really helps you get a feel for what you’re gonna be doing when you go out there and draft. Drafting for me is really where it gets fun. I really enjoy that part of it, but doing single-car runs you’re just looking at your water temperature and making sure you’re good there, plus there are some little things you can do that will give you some speed here and there.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 17 Citifinancial Mustang – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE DRIVING A NATIONWIDE MUSTANG TODAY? “I think it’s cool. Everybody knows what a Ford Mustang is because that’s what they started out racing. I think all of the fans think of a Ford Mustang as a race car and it’s raced ever since the first one was made, so I’m glad we’re getting the chance to run it in NASCAR. It looks like a good race car and they’ve done a really good job with the design. It really resembles a production Mustang and if we can just get it driving good here on the race track, we’ll be good to go.” HOW HAS TESTING GONE TODAY? “It’s good. We’re just running through a few things. NASCAR has some stuff they wanted us to do and stuff we wanted to try, but, I think, this is a pretty good car. Obviously, they’re gonna be safer than the older cars that we’ve been running. It’s a lot more roomier inside. I kind of feel lost in there because the older cars are a little smaller inside, but it’s really comfortable and I like the look of it.” WHAT’S IT LIKE OUT THERE BY YOURSELF? “There are some things around this race track you can do differently to make up a little bit of speed, like how you enter the corner and how you let go of the wheel coming up off, so there are a few things you can learn. But we’re really just out here riding around and trying to collect a lot of data for the guys.”