Tuesday, July 7, 2009 – Holiday weekends in the Midwest are busy racing weekends for most of the dirt oval drivers, teams, and series.  For Cole Whitt, the USAC schedule had two nights of racing among two classes.  In addition, Cole and C-Squared Racing added the traditional Sunday night at Kokomo to the schedule.  Large crowds were in attendance for 4th of July firework celebrations combined with racing action all weekend and solid results allowed Cole to move up in the points in both USAC National midget and sprint car classes.

 
Thursday night found Cole Whitt and his Keith Kunz Motorsports no. 67k Red Bull pavement sprint car competing at Winchester Speedway in the Rich Vogler Classic.  This high banked paved oval is a fast but very dangerous track.  The driving takes patience and precision in order to post a good finish.  Cole started the evening well with a fifth in qualifying.  After a third in his heat race, Cole was able to start the feature in second.  Early in the event Cole found he had good pace and made a pass for the lead on pole sitter Shane Hmiel.  Once into the lead, Cole continued to stretch his lead and as the laps clicked off, his lead moved to more than a full straightaway.  A late race caution bunched the field, and while Cole’s car was still good, it loosened up slightly.  Tracy Hines inherited the 2nd place position after Hmiel spun.  On the restart Cole maintained the lead but on lap 36 Hines was able to make a pass on Cole.  At the finish it was Hines taking the win and Whitt finishing second.  Cole’s second place finish had a positive effect on the points moving him from 5th to 3rd in the national standings.

The next night USAC scheduled a double header USAC National sprint car and midget event.  This meant that the Keith Kunz Motorsports team and Cole Whitt would pull double duty all night.  Both cars were on the pace early in practice.  Cole’s no. 67k sprint car was very good in qualifying and allowed Cole to qualify on pole and set a new track record!  The speed in the midget however only allowed for a 12th qualifying position.  Cole was able to reverse his fortune in the midget and place a win in the heat race.  Once into the feature race, Cole found a good race setup and his no. 1 USAC midget made the biggest move of any car in the feature from 12th to a finish of sixth.  In the sprint car the racing surface was not as easy to pass on and Cole posted a solid 6th place finish at the conclusion of the 50 lap feature.  The additional obstacle of a broken valve cover meant that his sixth place result was a great success in finishing with a major visibility obstacle.  With the two sixth places results Cole was able to again tighten the gap in the national points chase.

After a rainy 4th of July night off, the C-Squared 29w Red Bull sprint car returned to Kokomo Speedway.  The event at Kokomo was a packed affair with many of the best dirt sprint car drivers based in Indiana.  The sellout crowd got a chance to witness another great dirt race and another great drive for Cole Whitt.  Cole drew a bad spot for qualifying placing him early on a greasy track with no grip.  He posted a 15th position in the field of 32 sprint cars.   In the heat race, Cole found that his car was fast and he was able to secure a second place finish.  However, his 15th place qualifying position meant a 14th position start to the 25 lap feature.  The track conditions for the feature were very rough yet equally fast on the top and bottom of the track.  This was great news for Cole and the 29w.  He was fast from the green flag, and his pace and setup meant that he sliced through the cars in front of him.  He drove a very aggressive but smart feature and this netted him a fine second place finish.

Post weekend Cole said, “This was a lot of fun for the entire holiday weekend.  I love when we are busy with a lot of events, and it is even better when we are fast in all of the cars from the beginning practice sessions.  The Keith Kunz Motorsports team and I have worked hard to get the package even better for the second half of our season.  The results this weekend on the pavement show that work is paying off.  We can definitely target victories in both the pavement midget and sprint car for the remainder of 2009 every time we get to the track.  On the dirt at Kokomo, Chuck and I worked hard to get the car fast for the feature.  We made a couple of changes for the feature that allowed me to drive the car hard on the top and bottom.  It was fun getting through the field.  We worked hard to get to the front of the field.  It’s been tough on us lately with our pill draw placing us in the early qualifying group.  But we’ll keep working to get another Hoosier tires victory decal for the side of the 29w.  And I’m ready to go for Sprint Week!”