Notes: Pruett dominant in both Mexico practice runs (cont'd)

Braun to break out?

Veteran road racers and the hottest driver this season in the Sprint Cup Series say they might have to take a back seat in Sunday's Corona Mexico 200 to a kid with a total of six -- that's right, six -- NASCAR starts on his resume.

That would be Roush Fenway Racing's 19-year-old sensation in the making, Colin Braun. Braun's No. 16 Ford was third behind Busch and defending pole winner Pruett in the opening practice and runner-up to Pruett in the final practice.

Colin Bruan

Said has never finished worse than fifth in three previous starts at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Edwards has won three times this season in Cup and was fourth here last season.

"Right now, I'm leaning on Colin pretty hard," Edwards said bluntly. "He's a supernatural road racer, and he's going to be extremely tough to beat. I think he can win this race Sunday -- or whoever wins, is going to have to beat him."

Said has tutored some of the best drivers in NASCAR on road courses. He recently spent a day at Virginia International Raceway in Afton, Va., working with Braun, who has two consecutive second-place finishes here in Rolex Series races.

"It's depressing, you know, because I went and taught him a few weeks ago at VIR and now he kicks my [butt], you know?" Said smiled, as he spoke. "I kinda knew that was gonna happen because the kid is just unbelievable.

"He's kind of been flying under the radar up until now, but I think this is gonna be his breakout race. He'll definitely be at the front all day."

For his part, Braun was staying low-key Friday.

"These guys have built me a great car," Braun said. "The whole 3M Ford Fusion team's done a great job so far -- those guys have been working their butts off and we've got a fast car, for sure.

"It's going to come down to just taking care of it on Sunday, I think."

Tough corners

The Turn 7-8 complex in the "Esses" of the circuit's 2.518-mile course proved exceptionally brutal Friday, as three drivers damaged their cars there.

Less than 20 minutes into the opening session, rookie Landon Cassill got off course and slammed the left front of his No. 4 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet into the barrier, which he bounced along for a distance before the car came to a stop and briefly caught fire before Cassill bailed out.

Reutimann

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The youngster said he wasn't sure if a tire went down or "I just made a mistake," but the team was forced to pull out a back-up car for Saturday morning's pole qualifying session. Cassill got out for four laps and was 43rd of 47 cars in final practice.

After only two laps in the final practice, David Reutimann spun his No. 99 Toyota in the same complex and backed into the wall. He returned the car to the garage and the crew spent the rest of the afternoon rebuilding it so Reutimann, who was 11th in the opening practice, could qualify the same car.

Near the end of practice, Joe Fox, who skipped the first practice in Johnny Davis' No. 0 Chevrolet and was on his 10th lap, apparently misjudged Jason Keller's closing rate and turned into Keller's No. 11 CJM Motorsports Chevrolet exiting the 7-8 complex.

"I thought he was heading for the pits," Keller said. "I was on my normal line and when I turned into the corner, he turned and his left front wheel hit behind my front wheel. It's 1,000 percent not my fault, but at the end of the day, I hate it for Johnny Davis, who's just trying to put some racecars out here."

Keller's car, which was 11th in final practice, was undamaged while a Davis crewman said the team, which the owner's son Kertus Davis said had no backup car, would work on the car and try to get it ready to qualify.

The car had front and rear body damage and in fact, when the garage had thinned out, its entire rear body section had been removed.