After boldly predicting he’d score a top-15 finish in his Nationwide Series debut in Phoenix, Cole Whitt went out on Saturday and delivered on his promise. And if that weren't satisfying enough on its own, Whitt had a great time doing it.
“It was the most fun I had all year, for sure. I’m really happy with the way everything turned out – I thought we did awesome and I just hope we get another opportunity to go out there and do even better,” he said.
“And I couldn’t believe how much I learned in that one race: the way everyone races – it’s all new guys you are racing around — and the cars and the motors are a little bit different, so it just takes a while to get used to everything.”
Luckily, Whitt is a quick study. He posted the seventh best time in his first Nationwide session and then put up the fastest time in final practice before delivering a solid 23rd in qualifying.
In the race on the one-mile, tri-oval Phoenix International Raceway, he flirted with a top-10 finish before coming home 15th, just ahead of Kyle Busch, who has won 12 Nationwide races in 2010.
Not bad for a guy who made his stock car racing debut earlier this year in the K&N Pro Series East, where he ended its 10-race season fourth overall in points and second in the rookie-of-the-year standings.
'It was top-of-the-line equipment from a top-of-the-line team and I really think we could go and win races with it' – Cole Whitt
While the shorter K&N events tend to be sprints to the finish, the Nationwide Series demands a more strategic approach. That’s why one of the biggest lessons Whitt learned driving the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota in Saturday's WYPALL 200 was patience.
“You realise how much time you can lose when you are sitting there and battling with someone. You can just let them go and then you will see that they will come back to you. And you also see how much the pace slows down,” he said.
“You really don’t have to push your car super hard early in runs and you can be amazed how much time you can make up later in the run. It’s more about picking your battles to kind of win the war, whereas the K&N deal is just one big battle.”
But Whitt found the biggest difference between Nationwide and K&N was the tyres, which were much better than the ones he used in the lower series.
The net result is a car that’s more responsive and that gets much better drive off the corners. And while that might sound straightforward, it isn’t. “It took me a while to adjust: a lot of people think that if you have better tyres you can drive harder and I was kind of thinking the same thing, but it’s not really like that,” Whitt said.
“It’s more about the fact that the tyres are constructed differently and you need a little bit of a different driving style, so it takes a bit more time to get used to them compared to what I was running before.”
By all accounts Whitt’s Nationwide debut hit the right marks, although the 19-year-old was not pleased with his qualifying performance, which he felt should have been much better after he “messed up” the second lap.
One thing is clear: he wants to be in more Nationwide races in 2011. “Next year is still up in the air, but I hope we sparked enough interest to do something. And I’d love to do some more stuff with Red Bull,” he said.
“If we could do this with the same team whether a limited schedule or a full year, I wouldn’t hesitate. It was top-of-the-line equipment from a top-of-the-line team and I really think we could go and win races with it.”
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