Monday,  March 2, 2009 – Round three for both the USAC Sprint Car and Midget National series took place in Perris, CA at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night.  This race will conclude the west coast swing for the USAC National series until next fall.  Therefore, for Cole Whitt it was a final race near his home on the west coast, until next fall.  

After a rough beginning of the season for the no. 1 Red Bull Toyota Bullet USAC National midget, Cole and Keith Kunz were focused on having a better night than first two of the season.  On Saturday night, the hard work of Cole, KKM, and Toyota meant a better result.  Cole was able to wheel the no. 1 midget to a fifth place qualifying position from the 41 cars that were on hand to compete.   From there, a hard earned victory in the heat race meant that Cole was poised to post a positive result in the feature.  As the track continued to get slick on the bottom, Cole made the most of the Toyota powered Bullet and finished a strong 3rd place in the 30 lap feature.

Coming off of a victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Sprint Car, Cole looked forward to a solid back up of this performance.  In qualifying, a late draw placed the 67k in the last group of the 50 car field to qualify.  As the track conditions slicked off and the race track went away Cole managed to qualify 18th.   In the heat race, Cole was able to take the lessons from qualifying and convert them into a heat victory in the second heat.  The victory transferred Cole directly to the feature race and a sixteenth starting position.  In the feature Cole was able to race smart on the treacherous track and as the conditions changed to “rubber down”, Cole was able to move up several positions in the race to a final seventh place finish.  The finish was a victory for both driver and team as Cole was able to move past Dave Darland and now leads the USAC National Sprint points..

Cole was pleased with both finishes and said, “We are very happy to put both cars in the top ten at the finish of both races.  As we move forward in the season, we are looking to go for the championship in both the USAC midget and sprint car series.  To do that, we have to finish in the top ten and even top five for the majority of the races to make this possible.  I am fortunate to have a great team with Keith, Pete, Bo, AJ, and Kristo supporting me at all of the events.  We have also received great support from Toyota since the beginning of 2009, and we believe the results tonight in the midget will continue moving forward.”

Look for Cole, Keith Kunz Motorsports, and the no. 1 Red Bull Toyota to return to pavement for a two race weekend on March 13th, at Wichita Falls, Texas and March 14th, at Kyle, Texas.