ES: Loudon II: Whitt Cole preview

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the only repeat venue on the 10-race K&N Pro Series East schedule. That's a good thing for Cole Whitt, who never got a fair shake in the season's first visit there. In June, a pinion broke in the rear gear of his No. 84 Red Bull Toyota. After only six laps, Whitt's day was essentially done, as he pulled the car behind the wall for repairs. He returned to the track, but the race turned into a test session for Friday's New Hampshire 125.

"We didn't get a good finish, but we got to go back out and race," said Whitt, who finished 26th that day.

"We drove back through the field, but were multiple laps down. We'll have a similar setup when we go back and likely will be a little bit better, have better feel for what things are going to be like." Whitt turned laps as fast as the front-runners, logging laps and gaining valuable information for round two at New Hampshire.

"You almost have to underdrive the car at New Hampshire," Whitt said. "You can't over drive it, or you'll lose a bunch of time. The straightaways are so long, so it's all about getting down the straights. Just trying to get a good exit and not getting into the corners too hard. As we got going (in June), we realized that we needed to focus on getting off the corners good."

Whitt, a NASCAR rookie, ranks third in the championship with two races remaining - 71 points behind second-place Darrell Wallace Jr. and 137 behind leader Ryan Truex. He has five top fives and six top 10s in eight starts, with three second-place finishes and two poles.

-source: rbrt