Trevor Williams

At Friday’s Sam’s Town 400k at Texas Motor Speedway, two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers share several characteristics. Both are young, native Texans who were inspired by their fathers to get into racing. And yet their careers are very different.

Colin Braun (pronounced “Brown”), who drives the No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150, could be described as a real-life Speed Racer. Raised in Ovalo near Abilene, Braun started racing when he was 5. With his father Jeff’s background in race engineering and oil field logging, Braun honed his driving ability by using data acquisition to get the most out of his driving skill.

By age 14, Braun had competed in Europe and Asia. At 16, he raced in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and, at 17, won a race in the Grand Am Rolex Daytona Prototype series. In June 2007, Braun signed a long-term contract with Roush Fenway Racing, the team of such drivers as Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth.

Ryan Lawler, a graduate of Colleyville Heritage who drives the No. 07 Manheim’s Dealers Auto Auction of Dallas Chevy, got into racing at age 11. Lawler was inspired by his father, Patrick, a part-time Craftsman Truck Series driver. Racing at the dirt track at TMS and around Texas, he won several state championships as a teenager.

Despite taking a break from racing during high school, Lawler found success the past two years in the Pro All Stars Series South, which races super late models. Lawler placed second in 2006 and won the series title in 2007. He parlayed that success into a seven-race Craftsman Trucks deal with SS-Green Light Racing, signing a contract earlier this year before Daytona.

Now both rookies will race at TMS for the first time. The drivers are excited about the prospects of returning to their home-state track.

“It’s a good time coming to these big speedways. It’s a real high-banked track,” Lawler said. “I grew up watching these [Craftsman Truck Series] drivers race at this track. Now these are the people I’m racing against.”

Coming into TMS, both drivers have different goals for the season. Racing a full schedule, Braun is competing for Rookie of the Year honors, which is he leading by 13 points. On the other hand, Lawler is looking to get the best finishes he can and aims to add a couple races to his schedule.

Lawler has found the toughest challenge as a rookie has been dealing with his equipment, while Braun has incurred the ire of veteran drivers.  At Kansas, Braun sent Matt Crafton into the wall on one lap and drifted toward Jack Sprague on another, almost causing a wreck.

“As a rookie, I’m trying to learn from those guys, becoming friends with everybody. I apologized to those guys for the mistakes that I made. And I felt really bad about it,” Braun said. 

At the same time, Braun believes that veteran drivers should take into account his performance.

“I don’t think I deserve it but at the same time if you can prove you’re fast and can run up front, they should give you a little bit of respect,” Braun said. “We’ve had a fast truck, qualifying in the top 10 for every race this year.”

Both Lawler and Braun have found the best thing about racing has been their teams. The drivers enjoy being around experienced crew members and having open lines of communication.

“They never second guess what I’m saying about the car. Every week we make progress,” Lawler said.

Braun has been able to make the adjustment to NASCAR rules, where continuous data acquisition isn’t allowed during races, as opposed to his youth, where data was being collected all the time.

“When you’re racing with data acquisition, your crew chief and engineers rely on that a little bit more than I would like to,” Braun said. “So I enjoy not having the data so they have to listen to me.”

While both drivers will race in the bright lights of Texas, neither of them has been fazed by the limelight. Braun has been featured by a litany of media outlets in his short career, including ESPN, Sports Illustrated and MTV.

“If I can do everything that I can do and my crew chief can do everything he can do, when we go out there and put 100 percent effort into it, we’re going get good results,” Braun said. “I don’t let the media attention get to me. I try to focus on learning how to drive this truck better and faster.”

Lawler already has traded paint with Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch when Busch raced in the super late model North 100 at the USA International Speedway in late January.

A friend with Busch off the track, Lawler described how leading the race with a green-white-checker, he gave Busch, who was in second, a brake check. The current Sprint Cup points leader then tried a couple times to get on Lawler’s bumper to raise his rear tires up and make Lawler lose traction. 

“We raced pretty hard, a lot of beating and banging. I ended up beating him. He had words with me after the race,” Lawler said. “He was mad because I brake checked him and I was mad because he was on my bumper. We put on a little show for the fans.”

And there’s no doubt both Lawler and Braun will be looking to showcase their talents in front of family, friends, fans and fellow Texans on Friday.

TREVOR WILLIAMS can be reached at 940-566-6874. His e-mail address is twilliams@dentonrc.com .