Roush Fenway Racing will bench rookie #16-Colin Braun for two races in the aftermath of a crash with teammate #6-Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., in Monday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a high-level source within the team told Sirius NASCAR Radio’s Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody that RFR initially considered removing Braun from the ride permanently, but relented after sponsor ConWay Freight advocated a more lenient sanction. Braun will be in the ConWay-backed car this weekend at Talledega Superspeedway, before being replaced by former Sprint Cup Series champion Matt Kenseth in an unsponsored #16 Ford at both Richmond and Darlington. Braun has struggled in his rookie season of Nationwide Series competition, with a quartet of crash-related DNFs at Daytona, Las Vegas, Bristol and Phoenix. He has posted an average finish of 29.3 in his seven starts this season, with a best finish of 13th at Texas last week. He currently ranks 25th in Nationwide Series championship points.(Sirius Speedway)(4-22-2010)
UPDATE: Roush Fenway Racing announced that Matt Kenseth has been selected to drive the unsponsored #16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford at both the Richmond and Darlington races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Roush Fenway Racing further confirms that Colin Braun will continue to drive the #16 in the races to which he has been previously assigned, namely those Nationwide Series races where Con-way Freight and 3M are primary sponsors (16 more races). Matt Kenseth is our first selection to drive the #16 in the unsponsored races to promote Matt and this teams availability for Nationwide Series sponsorship, said team owner Jack Roush. We also believe Matt’s participation will strengthen the capabilities of our Nationwide Series programs. We are committed to campaign the #16 in all the Nationwide Series races, and we may select drivers other than Matt, and including Colin, to drive in the other unsponsored races. In making those driver decisions we will be balancing our competitive, sponsorship and development needs. Crew chief Eddie Pardue and the rest of the #16 team members will remain with the car no matter the driver.(Roush Fenway PR)(4-23-2010)
