Cole Whitt Honors Grandfather with Throwback Scheme

After a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) off-week, Cole Whitt and the No. 72 team return to competition this weekend at Darlington Raceway. Having four previous MENCS starts at the 1.366-mile, oval, Whitt has completed a total of 591 laps at the track famed as “Too Tough to Tame”.
 
As part of the Darlington Throwback initiative, the No. 72 will feature a paint scheme of personal significance to Whitt. The “Lime Green Machine” is a Whitt family tradition that originated with Whitt’s grandfather.
 
The lime green and black No. 60 race car was a family-owned and operated race team. Ted Whitt Plumbing, owned by Cole’s grandfather Jim, housed a race shop and plumbing shop in the same facility. The race crew mostly consisted of family and friends that also worked for Ted Whitt Plumbing. Cole’s grandfather, Jim Whitt, nicknamed “Gentleman Jim Whitt”, won the Cajon Speedway Track Championship in the No. 60 known as the “Lime Green Machine”. The car also proudly boasted a 454″ big block Chevrolet which was represented on the hood.  
Cajon Speedway race track was known as the fastest 3/8- paved oval on the West Coast. Tobin Whitt, Cole’s father won the Cajon Speedway Track Championship 20 years later, in 1989, driving the same infamous No. 60 Ted Whitt Plumbing sponsored Chevrolet.  
 
The throwback paint scheme is in honor of the 1972-73 Chevy Chevelle driven by Whitt’s grandfather the year he won the championship and also the races he ran years later in the NASCAR Winston Cup West Series. Jim Whitt raced five Winston Cup races in 1972 and 1973. He secured his best NASCAR Winston Cup finish on Sunday, January 21, 1973 at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, CA where he qualified 27th and finished 18th.  
Whitt and the No. 72 Green Machine team head to Darlington with great optimism in tackling the Lady in Black and securing a solid finish in honor of Jim Whitt. 
 
Tristar PR