In Defense of Cole Whitt

 In Defense of Cole Whitt

By Brian H Cotnoir

Cole Whitt was once touted as a Up & Comer of NASCAR, someone to keep your eye on, and a possible future champion in the making.  Unfortunately, like many drivers I write about, due to situations outside of his control he had his NASCAR career derailed, and it was over before it could ever get started.

Cole Whitt was a born racer.    While he was running USAC Sprint Cars his older cousin, Brandon Whitt, was winning a Truck race at Memphis Motorsports Park for Red Horse Racing.   While driving in USAC, Cole Whitt was noticed by the energy drink manufacturer Red Bull to a driver development deal.   In 2008, Whitt became the youngest USAC National Midget Champion (to date).  At this time in NASCAR's history, driver development wasn't exactly like it is today.   During this time many drivers would make the transition to NASCAR from Mid-Western Midget Cars and Open-Wheel racing.   Whitt was touted as the future of the Red Bull NASCAR Team.

Cole Whitt during his USAC days

Cole Whitt Ran in the K&N Pro East (now ARCA Menards East) Series in 2010 and ran the final two races of the Grand National Series as well.   Whitt had 3 runner-up finishes in the Pro East Series and finished 4th in the final drivers' standings.   The following season, Whitt and Red Bull moved up to the NASCAR Truck Series and ran the full campaign for Turn One Racing.  Whitt failed to qualify for the first race of the season at Daytona and had to buy a ride with RSS Racing to make the show.  After that adverse start to the season, Whitt began to show potential.  He finished runner-up to Kyle Busch at Dover and followed that up with a 3rd place the next race at Charlotte.   Whitt would finish the 2011 season at Turn One Racing with eleven Top 10 finishes and two Top 5's and finished the 9th in the Final Standings.  Sadly, for Whitt he wouldn't get to capitalize on his success.   Red Bull had shut down their entire NASCAR program, and Cole Whitt without his sponsorship from the team was out of a ride.

Whitt driving for Turn One Racing

Whitt wasn't the only one effected by this decision, but he certainly lost more than others.  He not only lost his race team, but he lost a major sponsorship deal too.    Whitt only ran the last two races of the 2011 season for Red Bull finishing a disappointing 25th and 37th.   The following season, he was tossed a life preserver--of sorts--when he was signed to drive the #88 car for JR Motorsports in the Grand National Series.   Ten years ago, JR Motorsports wasn't the powerhouse that it is today, but for Whitt it meant his career could still rebound.   In his first race for the team, Whitt finished 4th at Daytona.  Unfortunately, that'd be the highest finish Whitt would score that season.  Whitt scored two more 4th place finishes at Talladega and Michigan and would finish 5th in the fall race at Kansas.  He would 7th in the final drivers' standings and finish 2nd in the Rookie of the Year Standings to Austin Dillon.   Due to lack of sponsorship, Whitt would be released from JR Motorsports.

Whitt during his lackluster Cup Series debut

In 2013, Whitt would run part-time for Swan Racing in the Cup Series and part-time for Tri-Star. Motorsports in the Grand National Series.  In 2014, he'd run full-time for Swan Racing, after the race at Darlington the team and their points would be sold to BK Racing (the team that was originally Team Red Bull).  Despite the name, BK Racing had no direct sponsorship deal with Burger King.   Whitt would struggle to finish in the Top 25 that season and finished an abysmal 31st in the final drivers' standings.  The following season, Whitt made the jump to owner Bob Jenkins Front Row Motorsports.  Just like at Swan and BK Racing, Whitt struggled.  His team was underfunded and couldn't compete with the budgets of the bigger teams.  Stints at Premium Motorsports and a return to Tri-Star Motorsports (this time in the Cup Series) failed to produce much of anything.  Between 2014-2018, Whitt's Best finish in the Cup Series was a 12th Place at the 2017 Brickyard 400.

No Sponsors=No Good Racing

Whitt's career had a couple of major setbacks.  The biggest one was Red Bull shutting down their Cup Series team.  For a company that spends hundreds of millions each year on not one, but two Formula One teams, you'd think they can suck up spending $10-20 million dollars a season a Cup Series team.  The team did score two wins in their 5 seasons of existence, but it wasn't enough to keep them around.  Whitt's other major undoing was the lack of competitive rides.   He drove for some serious back marker teams in his career, teams that had no chance of winning and were only competitive at the Restrictor Plate races.   However, I will say that Whitt should have attempted more races in the Trucks or the Grand National Series.   It's hard not to consider Cole Whitt a NASCAR Bust (especially when he has no wins in the Top 3 Series), but I will say the rug was definitely ripped out from underneath his feet by Red Bull and snowballed out of control, resulting in his retirement not just from NASCAR, but racing at the age of 27 following the 2018 season in the Cup Series.   

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