Tuesday, July 28, 2009 – Cole Whitt had another eventful and successful weekend in Indiana.  With the NASCAR Sprint Cup competing at the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, and the Camping World Truck Series as well as the NASCAR Nationwide Series in competition at the Indianapolis Raceway Park a number of sprint car and midget events were on the schedule around Indiana.  Whitt combined a USAC National Midget event with two local C-Squared Motorsports race events during the weekend. 

The first event for Cole Whitt on this weekend was not on the track.  Cole was invited to appear at the grand opening of the Dave Illingworth Toyota dealership in Warsaw, IN.  The appearance was organized as a customer appreciation event and included Toyota drivers Kyle Busch, Michael Waltrip and Cole Whitt.  While the weather was not perfect, hundreds of customers and fans attended and were able to get autographs of all the drivers.  Cole spent time with Busch and Waltrip in addition to showing Mr. Illingworth his Toyota powered USAC midget.

Following the appearance, Whitt moved to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the traditional USAC National midget event held on the Thursday before the Brickyard 400.  Whitt and his Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota powered Red Bull midget came to the race event with a package that has continued to develop as the season has progressed.  Due to the mid-west weather continuing to treat race promoters with the usual summer rainstorm challenges, qualifying times were set based on practice times placing Cole 3rd fastest of  the 39 cars.  In the heat race Cole raced from eighth position to finish 2nd transferring him to the feature.  After starting fourth in the feature, Cole was able to move into second on the start.  However, a spin at the back by the last car meant that the entire event would be reset and re-started.  This was not good news for Whitt, as on the second start he was shuffled back to eighth.  As the race continued, the No. 1 lost rear grip, and after 30 laps, Cole was not able to recoup any of the positions, but did maintain eighth position.

Friday night for Cole was time to roll out the no. 29w C-Squared Motorsports dirt sprint car.  Cole and Chuck Gurney Jr. moved to Gas City I-69 Speedway with a full field of 38 cars in attendance.  After drawing for position in the heat race, Cole made quick work of his fifth place starting position and posted a 2nd place finish.  After a draw of the top six drivers from the heats, Cole pulled the pole position for the feature start.  As the track moved through the evening, Cole found the fast groove to be around the top shelf up on the cushion after an attempt to drive on the bottom was not successful.  Once on the top side of the track Cole maintained the lead throughout the first 29 of 30 laps, however, second and third place were very close behind.  As all three cars raced on the white flag lap the second place car threw his car into a slide to get past Cole.  Cole was forced up the race track yet finished a smart 3rd place.  

After going to the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday night after the Anderson 200 USAC midget race was cancelled, Cole and C-Squared Motorsports returned to Kokomo Speedway.  The “home track” of C-Squared found another strong Sunday night field in attendance.  Cole was able to make the most of his heat race and posted victory.  The top two from the three heat events drew for the feature starting position.  Cole drew sixth position.  While the top of the track was preferred on this night, Cole also realized quickly that in order to move to the lead he would have to find a way to get the car to work on the bottom.  After finding a style to get through the corners on the bottom that worked, Cole quickly raced into third position.  Once into third position and with few laps remaining, Cole used the bottom of the track to reel in the top two sprint cars passing 2nd place and maneuvering through lapped traffic.  However, with only one lap remaining Cole had to hustle to catch the leader.  On the final lap, Cole once again made the bottom work and took the victory by a wheel.  The win makes number six for Cole and the no. 29w at Kokomo this season.  By taking victory, Cole has also taken over the Sunday night points lead, even though he has not been able to compete in every event due to USAC conflicts.

Cole said, “Well what can I say, but we have a lot of fun on Sunday at Kokomo!  I was not sure with my sixth starting spot that I would be able to pull out a win tonight, because the track was so fast.  But early in the feature, I decided that the only way I was gonna get close was to make the bottom work.  I was able to make it happen on the bottom and just barely got to the lead in time for the checkered flag.  I took over the points lead at Kokomo which is a great bonus to the win.  The rest of the weekend was great and having the appearance on Wednesday with the NASCAR drivers was fun.  That is my goal, and anytime I can be around drivers like Kyle and Michael it’s cool.   They have made it to the top level like I hope to one day.  Thank you to Toyota and Mr. Illingworth for the invitation.”