Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Whitt gives up open-wheel dream for stock cars

Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Two years ago, Brandon Whitt was on a path to become the next Danny Sullivan or Michael Andretti. Now he's hoping to become the next Kevin Harvick or Kurt Busch.

Whitt, a 20-year-old from El Cajon, Calif., was moving up the European junior Formula ladder two years ago with the goal of becoming the next American driver in the Formula One World Championship. He was on track to achieve that dream after being offered a ride in the British Formula Renault series in 2001.

"Everything was working out perfectly," Whitt said of his open-wheel racing career. "There's a ladder system in European open-wheel racing and I had every reason to believe that I would continue to move up, with the eventual goal being CART, the IRL or Formula One."

But Whitt comes from a stock-car racing family -- his grandfather, father and uncle all raced the Southern California short tracks -- and he caught the oval-racing bug as a teenager racing at El Cajon Speedway. Whitt eventually turned down the Formula Renault ride and elected to return to El Cajon and pursue a career racing stock cars.

Whitt now hopes to follow the path that West Coast drivers Harvick and Busch took, through the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Whitt will attempt to qualify for his fifth Truck Series race of the season Saturday night in the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Whitt is coming off his best NCTS finish of the season, a 13th-place effort Saturday at California Speedway, but he likely would have had a top-10 finish had it not been for an ill-timed caution period.

"It would have been great to have laid down a top-ten finish at California, but things just didn't work out that way," Whitt said. "In our hearts, we know we gave it a top-ten effort and with everything we could control, we had a top-ten run.

"We can't control when the cautions come out -- and one came out at a bad time for us. Still, we feel like we have some momentum going for this weekend, and we are going to capitalize on that."

Whitt will be one of 48 drivers attempting to qualify for the 36-truck field for Saturday's 7 p.m. race on the 1.5-mile LVMS superspeedway. Whitt isn't setting any goals such as winning Saturday's race; he is content to run laps and gain experience for a full-time Truck Series ride in 2004.

"Everything we are doing this year is geared towards learning and geared towards setting ourselves up for a great 2004," said Whitt, who also has competed in the NASCAR Southwest and Winston West series. "The more laps I have, whether they are in practice or qualifying or the race, the more I am going to learn as a racecar driver. That's all I am really concerned with right now.

"Every time you move, the past doesn't mean quite as much. Nobody in trucks cares what I did in Winston West or Southwest Tour -- and that's fine. I want to do what it takes to reach success in the Craftsman Truck Series because that is the next step in reaching my ultimate goal."

Robinson, who competed in seven NASCAR Winston Cup races last season, will attempt to qualify for her second Truck Series race of the season and will again field all all-female pit crew. Robinson started 32nd and finished 18th in the NJCTS race at Texas Motor Speedway in June.

Sutton has started two Truck Series race this season, finishing 27th at Memphis Motorsports Park and 23rd at New Hampshire International Speedway, and Gordon has run 11 NCTS race this year with a pair of 13th-place finishes (Charlotte and Nashville).

Qualifying for the Las Vegas 350 will be at noon Saturday, final practice is set for 2:15-3:35 and the 146-lap race begins at 7 p.m.

Joining Musgrave and Hamilton will be Carl Edwards, Jon Wood, defending Las Vegas truck race winner David Starr and Travis Kvapil.