There are several NASCAR Cup Series drivers who deserve better rides. Cole Whitt is one of them. Will he ever get a ride with a top-tier team?
Cole Whitt, 26, is not a very proven driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has driven off and on in the series since 2011, but only in 2014 did he really start driving in most races each season, as the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons only featured Whitt in a couple of races.
Whitt has driven for all kinds of small and underfunded teams throughout his Cup Series career. In 2011, he drove two races for Team Red Bull, and in 2012, he drove three races for Turn One Racing and two races for Circle Sport.
Then in 2013, he drove seven races for Swan Racing Company before driving full-time in 2014 for Swan Racing (renamed) as well as BK Racing. In 2015, he drove full-time for Front Row Motorsports before driving the 26 of the 36 races in 2016 for Premium Motorsports. He is currently in his first season as the lone full-time driver for TriStar Motorsports.
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Whitt’s numbers over the course of his 137 career Cup Series races have not been too great. In fact, he has never finished a single race in the top 10, although he has come close with a 12th place finish at Indianapolis this season, an 11th place finish at Daytona last season and a 13th place finish at Talladega in 2015. He also has several other top 20 finishes during which he has been in the mix for a top 10 result.
Right now, Whitt sits in 33rd place in the championship standings with a top finish of 12th place this season and three other finishes in the top 20.
Whitt has switched teams quite frequently throughout his Cup Series career, and he’s never driven for a team that has anywhere near the resources that top-tier teams have to offer. The fact that he has even come close to finishing in the top 10 driving for some of the teams he has driven for shows that he should be given a chance to drive for a top-tier team at some point in his career.
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