Cole Whitt To JRM: Let the Battle of the Newbies Begin!

Former USAC driver Cole Whitt has a ride.  He’s been picked up by Dale Junior Motorsports (Hendrick’s team in Nationwide) to run the full season in the 88.  He replaces Aric Almirola who’s heading off to RPM’s 43 in the Sprint Cup Series.  Cole Whitt leaves the Red Bull fold and now is part of NASCAR’s most powerful team.  Here’s the funny thing; Whitt’s teammate is Danica Patrick.  Danica is not technically a rookie as she’s ran enough races in the last two seasons to lose that designation.  That said she’s not especially experinced and hasn’t seen a lot of success so far in NASCAR.  The decision to hire Cole Whitt is especially interesting as instead of hiring a teammate Danica can rely on for help with setup JRM has decided to hire a driver who’s success or failure can be measured directly against Danica.

Danica’s 2011 Nationwide season was forgettable.  To be fair no JRM car won a race.  If the plan is to get her in a Cup car as soon as possible she needs to win a race or two like Bayne and Stenhouse.  While Go-Daddy will likely push for her to get a ride either way for anyone to have any confidence in her then she has to win a non plate and non fuel race.   Because if a driver cannot beat Edwards and Busch in a Nationwide race it’s hard to have faith that they’ll be able to beat Edwards, Harvick, Gordon, Stewart, Johnson, Busch, Hamlin, and more during a Cup race.

Red Bull Will Be missed

As for Cole Whitt 2011 was also mixed.  At one point he led the Camping World Truck Series points but by the end of the year he had faded to 9th in points.  Considering only 20 drivers ran or attempted to run the full season that’s not a great finish.  Of course Turn One Motorsports wasn’t a top team either. Whitt also ran a a few Nationwide races and a couple Sprint Cup races.  Whitt seems like a good driver and it makes sense to get him in the Hendrick fold since many of their drivers are older (mid 30′s or above) and will eventually retire.  His main competitor for the ride appears to have been David Ragan.  Considering Ragan did nothing with a Roush ride for five seasons it’s hard to see him having done much with the JRM ride.  At least with Whitt they’re developing a young star.

However it still suprises me that JRM would put a rookie with Danica.  It gives everyone a benchmark to measure Danica against.  You could argue Danica has more experience than Whitt! If one driver does well while the other struggles it will make the struggling driver, whether Danica or Whitt, look pretty bad.   As well if they struggle to setup a car who does the team turn to?  They can go and hope that another Hendrick driver will help them out but none of the current Hendrick drivers race regularly in Nationwide either.

2012 Nationwide Champion?

The question remains how good is JRM equipment.  It should be top tier.  JRM is the Hendrick Nationwide program.  With a variety of sponsors they’re fairly well funded.  Despite not winning a race this year they are still one of the better teams in the series. Danica and Whitt will be given every opportunity to succeed.  It’s up to them to seize the opportunity.  With the Nationwide series looking pretty weak especially in terms of full time Nationwide regulars Danica and Whitt should be in the top 5 in points.  Who knows… either one could end up hoisting the trophy at the end of the year.  After all their main competition will be Austin Dillon and Sam Hornish Jr.  If Bayne or Stenhouse show up then they would likely be the front runner.  I know there are other drivers including Justin Allgier who may do well but can Allgier’s team really compete over a full season against Hendrick, Childress, and Penske?  As long as Stenhouse doesn’t show up I would expect Austin Dillon to be the front runner for the title.  If Dillon struggles some then Danica or Whitt might be able to profit off of it.  Between the two my gut says Whitt will slightly out preform Danica.  I wouldn’t go out on a limb and say that’s for sure.  If Danica is going to make the move to NASCAR work then she’ll need to stay equal or out preform Whitt.  By the end of the season we should have an answer one way or another.

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