May 25th, 2010 
Journo A few months ago I wrote a post lauding Roush’s developmental commitment even through sponsorship adversity. I said Roush’s commitment to Colin Braun and to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was evident in its continued support of two underfunded teams. And I applauded the man (Jack Roush) and the team (Roush Fenway) for giving chances to those who couldn’t necessarily fund their own rides.
About a month later though Roush booted Colin Braun from the ride full-time in favor of a split schedule with other drivers. This wasn’t good for my argument – that is that Roush was a bastion for the development driver. As the picture became clear and the weeks have progressed though, Jack Roush has, in my mind (for what that’s worth), continued to demonstrate the importance of young and developmental drivers to his organization.
Roush, for his part, gave Colin Braun two full seasons in the Truck Series and some random Nationwide starts. Despite being one of the best funded teams led by a very good crew chief (Mike Beam) Braun was only able to score one win and finish 13th and fifth in the points in his two Truck campaigns. This season Braun wrecked (or was involved in wrecks) in five of nine races he competed in. Jack Roush, rightfully so, had seen enough.
While Braun’s days with the team appear to be numbered, he was given a reprieve by his sponsor Conway Freight, despite its discontent with the situation.
Where one driver appears to have run his course though, another has gotten an opportunity. Roush Fenway signed Brian Ickler to run at Charlotte – and from what we’re hearing beyond. The young driver has been able to put together limited deals throughout his career and is getting his opportunity to excel in top-notch equipment.
With Braun in just 14 more races this season that leaves plenty of opportunities for Ickler to get seat time. And we’re hearing in addition to this weekend’s race at Charlotte, Ickler will also run at Daytona and Kentucky in the coming weeks.
Adding Ickler to a stable that includes Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and young Chris Buescher (check out TC’s post from yesterday) further adds to a portfolio of great potential talent. While certainly driver development isn’t an exact science (Roush has proven that), committing to building the stars of tomorrow continues to be a priority for this organization – and for that I continue to commend them.
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How quick we are to point out the “funding” of the Roush organization. One of the principal reasons Roush bailed out of the truck series is that Ford no longer provided factory support. Despite this, Colin Braun finished as Rookie of the Year in 08 and was 5th overall (fourth in driver rating)in a single truck team last year. Of course nobody’s content with poor finishes, least of all Colin Braun. But, lets not confuse poor finishes with poor performance. Con-Way wouldn’t risk its huge investment by continuing to back Braun if they didn’t believe that Braun was still a profoundly capable driver. You’re extremely premature in announcing Braun has “run his course” when there are at least 14 races remaining in his schedule. Braun’s hiatus has done nothing but re-invigorate his passion for performance. With two weeks off Braun came back and finished 10th at Dover in the Nationwide race among a bevy of Cup drivers. Don’t count out Colin; especially when there are two road courses in the upcoming schedule. Colin has kept his road racing background fresh by competing in the Rolex 24 every year (since he was 16) and several Nationwide road course races.
As far as superior equipment, are we to ignore the fact that Roush/Ford hasn’t won a race in any Nascar series this year and assume that the drivers have all “run their course?” Of course not. Is Edwards washed up? How about Kenseth? He finished 35th in his last Nationwide race. Is it not possible that the Ford Nationwide program is just a bit behind?
Remember, the Nationwide series is really “Cup lite” and for any Nationwide regular to finish in the top 10 it is a significant accomplishment; all the more when a rookie does it. As I said before, Don’t count Colin out. If anyone deserves extended grace its him. Almost every poor finish he’s had has nothing to do with poor driving. Mired among the middle-of-the-pack madness Colin has been caught up in somebody else’s “error” on at least 6 occasions this year. Four of those “errors” can be attributed to one 2nd generation driver who, without daddy’s backing would have been long gone from any NASCAR series, considering his frequent mishaps.
Will Ickler succeed at Roush? Perhaps. But that doesn’t mean it will necessarily be as Colin Braun’s replacement. Watch and see….
Colin’s biggest problem this year comes in the form of Steven Wallace. He is probably the absolute worse driver other than Townsley in the NWS. Wallace is always causing Colin problems on the track. Jack the Jerk is living up to his name, by jerking Colin around the way he does. I pull for Colin, but not for Roush. He wont give a young driver enough time to adjust. Look what he did at Dover, a 10th place finish! I glad Conway is backing Colin. Hopefully he can take his talent and sponsor to a team that appreciates him. Colin Braun is a 1st class guy and driver!!
Human nature to kick people when they are down. Roush Racing is down!
Following up to Scott’s comments, which I agree, I would also like to question Ford’s commitment to racing. I believe it is time for Ford to move on from being a exclusive Rousch entity. I believe it is time for Ford to allow others into the inner circle and see if new ideas might bring new wins. It is obvious to me that Rousch is not the future of Ford oval track racing. The cars are not competitive, the Chevy, Toyota, and even Dodge camps have out engineered the Rousch people. I do not believe it is the drivers. I believe the lack of Ford’s NASCAR success falls on Mr. Rousch. It is time for a change at the top of Ford racing.
Scott: Don’t mistake what we have written as us bashing Colin. We are simply telling you how it is. The only reason Colin will remain behind the wheel of the #16 for any races this season is because of Con Way Freight. Without them stepping in, Colin would be out. The unfortunate thing about driver development these days is that these kids are expected to win and run up front right away. If they don’t, they are out. And with Colin being compared to past Roush driver development guys like Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, and Carl Edwards, he’s going to be in trouble.
Just to give you some statistical info, through 51 truck starts, Colin had one win, 12 top 5, and 22 top 10 finishes. Let’s compare him to those three guys mentioned above. Through his first 57 truck starts, Carl Edwards had 6 wins, 22 top 5, and 33 top 10 finishes. Greg Biffle had 9 wins, 22 top 5, and 31 top 10 finishes in his first 52 starts. And Kurt Busch had 4 wins, 14 top 5, and 17 top 10 finishes in his 25 truck starts. It’s hard to argue with that.
Colin may in fact turn his season around with his remaining starts and earn his way back into Jack’s good graces. For his sake, I hope he does. But when you wreck a teammate for seemingly no reason, “extended grace” won’t be apart of Roush’s vocabulary. If Braun can’t turn his year around though, Roush can’t afford to not have other prospective drivers in the hopper. They saw an opportunity to bring Ickler in and get him some races, and if he does well, Colin may well be on his way out.
Stanley: Why do you think that Roush is not the future of Ford racing? And how can you say that the Fords aren’t as competitive as the other manufacturers? I understand that they don’t yet have the wins, but if the Chase started today, we have 5 Chevys, 3 Toyotas, 3 Fords, and 1 Dodge making it into the playoffs. And those three Fords are all Roush cars, with Matt Kenseth sitting third. They look pretty competitive to me…
Scott has eloquently stated the case much as I would.
I’ll admit to a Braun bias.
Perhaps ConWay – with Colin in tow – heading off to another team that will appreciate him would be best.
In the meantime, I’m betting that Colin’s results will soon match up with his always-excellent performance.
In fairness to Colin Braun, when being compared to the truck campaigns of Edwards, Biffle, and Kurt Busch…they were all in the truck series before Toyota came in and basically took it over. The truck series was quite different back then. I’m not as aware of what Braun has done in Nationwide this year (aside from hearing about all the wrecks) because I have completely lost interest in the series with all the Cup regulars in it…but I do remember him being pretty impressive when he was in the Rolex series full-time.
On the other hand, I have heard and seen great things from Brian Ickler for years and I am glad to see him get this opportunity!
Let’s just face it-no driver will get any kind of opportunity without bringing $$ with them. Roush had a great driver in Darnell, and see what happened to him once his sponsor left racing. Look at his credentials–average finish was 12.6 in 15 NW races last year. Roush let the best developent driver go and that’s sad.
I don’t do statistics and everything else that these former messages put in here. I am just a Nascar fan and have been watching Colin for a couple years now. I like to see him go for it. I can remember him winning at Michigan and was so excited. I just hope that someone notices his value and let him drive. He has taken his knocks like a real winner and still support his team.
grrr- Darnell is actually still signed with Roush.
Journo, I know and all that he does is gets to test now and then. I’m just wishing that he will get a seat at RPM. Or at least run Braun’s car once or twice. Everybody seems to forget about him and that’s just plain sad. He can flat out drive a race car! I’ve been around this sport for 50 years and it’s just a shame the sport has come to this–$$ talks or talent walks!
T.C.: If you link my initial dialogue with the comments of Kevin and Stanley, a comparison of the other Roush truck drivers to Colin Braun is heavily predjudiced. Colin didn’t have full factory support last year, and he didn’t have even a second Ford team to share information. If you also consider there has been a greater influx of Cup regulars in the truck series (one of whom wrecked Colin on his way to a win at Charlotte) it’s apples to oranges. It would be like comparing Richard Petty’s 200 wins to Jimmy Johnson’s 50+ wins and concluding Petty was 4 times better than Johnson.
I do agree with your comment that the only reason Colin was allowed to remain behind the wheel at all was because of his sponsorship, but that doesn’t mean that Roush’s lack of patience was warranted. If Jack is truly committed to the driver-development program he’s got to recognize the different flavor it has today. To his credit he recognized Toyota’s dominence in the truck series and gracefully bowed out, sans Ford factory support. Jack should use that same foresight to recognize the transitioning atmosphere in the Nationwide series. When his heroic development drivers were in that series in the past it was still a developmental series. The top ten positions were not dominated by cup drivers. This new phenomenae has created a mid-pack-madness where rookies and Nationwide regulars who need to make an impression are clawing for mediocre results and resorting to desperate measures; overdriving their cars, and creating catastrophes for anyone around them. That’s the Nationwide world Colin was born into and if Jack expects to relive the results (insert “stats”) of his earlier generation of development drivers he really is wasting his money. Everything is different now and a commitment to this commendable program needs to take on a different face.
TC: By the way, check the tape on the Stenhouse/Braun dust up at Texas. They were both vying for the lucky dog (reason for racing hard). Colin had been closing on Stenhouse for several laps and when the leader passed them, the atmosphere changed. Colin had his nose and front quarter under Stenhouse coming out of the corner. Stenhouse pinched him down and Colin didn’t lift. There was dual responsibility for the mishap, but it was FAR from a “seemingly for no reason” intentional action on Colin’s part.
Scott- The fact of the matter is Jack Roush has given Colin Braun more than enough time to develop. He has 51 truck starts and 16 Nationwide starts. That’s two full truck seasons and what amounts to half a Nationwide season. What does Colin have to show for that? One win. Colin has always been in the best funded equipment in the garage (and even without Ford funding in the Truck Series they were easily better off than any other team) and frankly hasn’t done much. Colin’s innate ability to wreck or get caught up in wrecks is a running joke around the garage. He could have talent, but how much more time and money is Jack expected to lose on him? He hasn’t been patient? What do you call all the last three seasons? Jack Roush took a chance on a kid who didn’t have much/any stock car experience. It was worth a shot, but they have nothing to show for three seasons. Now it’s time for everyone to move on.
As for Colin not having ‘full Ford support’ it’s an absolute fallacy that he was not as well off as any other driver in Roush truck equipment. It’s absolutely apples to apples. Just because Ford wasn’t putting as much money in Roush’s truck program (the second year mind you) does not mean they did not have technical support, or the ability to use wind tunnels, or data from past seasons, or funding enough to be competitive. In fact I would be willing to say they had more technical support (just from the Roush organization) than any other team in the sport. And what about Colin’s first year with the team? Roush had three full-time truck teams. On top of that underfunded (and for that matter technically) supported Brian Scott and Timothy Peters were able to finish just behind Colin in the points last year and score a win each. Red Horse and Xpress are not Roush Fenway. It’s funny too because the four trucks behind Colin in the points last year actually had better average finishes than him. None were driving for big teams or teams that had manufacturer support.