COLE DANIEL WHITT - 06/22/1991
an American stock car driver. After advancing his way through Kart racing, Whitt moved up to sprint cars and became a development driver for Red Bull. After running in the Camping World Series East, Whitt made his NASCAR debut in 2010. The younger cousin of Brandon Whitt, he was a candidate for Rookie of the Year in the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series. Cole Whitt started his race career in go karts. After winning championships in go-karts, Whitt moved up to sprint cars in 2004. Whitt was quickly noticed by Red Bull. In 2008 Whitt became the youngest winner of the USAC National Midget Championship, while winning the Hut Hundred. The next year Whitt raced in Silver Crown, Sprints, and Midgets, earning 17 wins driving for Keith Kunz. Whitt moved up to stock cars in 2010. Whitt ran for the Camping World East Series championship, where he impressed by winning the pole in his first start at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Whitt eventually finished fourth in points. Whitt was rewarded with making his Xfinity Series debut at Phoenix International Raceway, where he made the race and finished 15th. He rove a third Red Bull Racing Team entry in the Cup Series in the final two races of the season at Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. With the closing of Red Bull's racing program after the 2011 season, Whitt signed a contract with JR Motorsports to drive that team's #88 Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series in 2012, competing for Rookie of the Year honors. He also competed on a start and park basis in the Cup Series in selected races for Turn One Racing and Circle Sport. In 2013, Whitt and JR Motorsports
parted ways with the team citing lack of sponsorship. He has since joined forces with Tri-Star Motorsports, driving their #44 Xfinity entry from Dover onward. He earned his first top-ten of the year with an eighth-place finish at Road America. Late in the season, he ran seven Cup races with Swan Racing Company as a replacement for David Stremme. The team then hired him for the full 2014 season. As of the start of the 2014 season Whitt had made 14 Cup starts; but he raced full time in 2014 and 2015; Mostly for BK Racing and Bob Jenkins. He ran 26 races in 2016 driving for Jay Robinson. All of the teams are small teams without benefit of a large budget. So far Whitt's best Cup finish has been an 11th place run at Daytona in 2016. He also has several top 20 finishes in races at Talladega and Daytona. As the 2017 Daytona 500 approached; Whitt joined TriStar Motorsports for the entire 2017 season as a chartered team, driving the #72 Ford. In the Daytona 500, Whitt qualified 17th, led 3 laps and finished 18th. This was the only laps he would lead all season. He finished 16th at Talladega and would have his
best result at Indianapolis where he finished 12th. On February 6, 2018, Whitt announced he would step back to a part-time ride in 2018 with TriStar, sharing the ride with Corey LaJoie. Whitt stated that the part time change was due to him wanting to spend more time with family. Whitt started the season in Atlanta, where he qualified 32nd and finished 28th. He had a seasons best finish of 19th in Texas. On November 12, Whitt announced the 2018 Can-Am 500 at ISM Raceway was his final race in NASCAR. Some info from Wikipedia
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