TRUCKS: Whitt Banking On Good Dover Run

Camping World Trucks

TRUCKS: Whitt Banking On Good Dover Run

Cole Whitt will have his debut NASCAR Camping World Series start this weekend at Dover International Speedway...

Jared Turner | Posted May 11, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Cole Whitt, driver of the no. 60 Red Bull Chevrolet, stands on the grid during pre-race activities for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Bully Hill Vineyards 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on April 22, 2011 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo: Getty Images)

To hear Cole Whitt tell it, he’s just a simple guy.

So simple, in fact, that his time during the week consists largely of hanging out at his team’s race shop and tinkering with his own diesel truck.

The 19-year-old also isn’t one to gloat about his accomplishments – which include a USAC National Midget championship in 2008 and two USAC Silver Crown wins in 2009 – and he more or less likes to take life at a slow pace when he’s not racing.

Perhaps it is Whitt’s low-key personality that makes the rookie hardly a household name yet in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

It’s all good with him, though. He’s been making plenty of noise this season on the track.

In just five starts this year in NASCAR’s No. 3 division, Whitt has three top 10s and a worst finish of 14th. He’s fifth in the standings, 12 points behind leader Johnny Sauter.

Whitt’s most impressive run to date came in March at Darlington Raceway where the youngster scored an unlikely pole in his No. 60 Turn One Racing Chevrolet.

The Red Bull development driver then backed up his qualifying run with an eighth-place finish at the track widely regarded as NASCAR’s toughest.

His best finish is a pair of sixth-place runs at Phoenix and Martinsville.

Not too shabby for a guy who cut his teeth racing on dirt and prior to this season had fewer than 20 total stock car starts to his credit.

“I guess a lot of people just don’t know who I am around here,” Whitt said. “I wasn’t really known in any of the other leagues. I’ve always been a guy who always wanted to race everything and any chance we can race we wanted to be there. It didn’t matter how big of a race it was or who was going to be there to run against. It was just a matter of going and racing every race and winning every race. At the end of the day I’m still just trying to make a name for myself and still trying to really learn this whole new deal and this whole new kind of racing, so at the end of the day I’m still a rookie for sure.”

At Daytona in February, Whitt was a rookie who handled adversity like a veteran. After failing to qualify for the season opener, the Alpine, Calif., native hopped in the No. 93 truck qualified by Shane Sieg. He started 33rd and finished 14th, an accomplishment considering he was on pace for a top-five before getting caught up in a late wreck.

Whitt considers salvaging a good weekend at Daytona even more of an achievement than his Darlington pole.

“That’s what’s given us probably a really big drive to be a better team and definitely made us try so hard to get so much better, so that was a little bit of a turning point for us, something that gave us really kind of a kick in the butt to turn things around,” Whitt said.

“We’ve been fast from the get-go other than Daytona and we were fast in practice; we just didn’t quite have the truck that could qualify in on time by itself. … We’ve moved on and I think we’ve regrouped really well and we’ve been on a pretty good tear ever since.”

Whitt’s ability to get up on the wheel caught the eye of Turn One owner and Truck Series veteran Stacy Compton late last season.

Compton offered Whitt a one-race cameo start in the 2010 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he qualified 10th and finished 28th after an incident ruined what could have been a top-10 day.

Whitt’s performance was enough to convince Compton to bring Whitt back for the full season in 2011 as part of his development deal with Red Bull.

So far, the decision has proven to be a shrewd one.

“Cole has been impressive in anything he has ever raced. He and his family are dedicated to his racing career, and even partially uprooted to Indiana when Cole was racing Sprint cars. He’s won races and championships in almost everything he has ever raced. The kid is just impressive,” Compton said.

Cole Whitt, driver of the #60 Red Bull Toyota, won the pole for the Too Tough to Tame 200 at Darlington Raceway. (Photo: LAT: Photographic)

“Cole Whitt is the future of NASCAR. … He has a lot of natural talent, a true desire to win and a great understanding of race cars and the changes that need to be made to make them go fast.”

Whitt hopes his early success carries over to Friday’s Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway (8 p.m. ET on SPEED).

Dover is one of few NCWTS venues where Whitt has raced, having competed at the one-mile track last year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Whitt led that race before crashing out with a blown tire.

“I feel real confident going into Dover just because that track I had so much fun running there last year,” he said. “Anywhere with some banking, even like Darlington was, or going to Charlotte I think’s going to be fun, but anywhere with some banking and a place where you can be on the hammer and just really drive it hard and be on the gas is a place that gets me pretty excited to go to because you really get to do some hard driving.”

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.