The 2007 Season So Far - Brandon Whitt

It's pretty frustrating that an up-and-coming, talented driver with a Craftsman Truck Series victory under his belt hasn't been in a racecar since Las Vegas back in March.

Brandon joined CJM Racing late last season, giving the underfunded, struggling team a fighting chance at making races. He qualified for Phoenix in the fall but finished 43rd due to a mechanical failure (of course). In 2007 he attempted three races and DNQed (of course) for all of them. Suddenly the #72 Dutch Quality Stone Chevy disappeared from the entry lists and rumors began to fly that Brandon had been fired and CJM was pairing up with Greg Pollex (formerly the owner of ppC Racing) in the Busch Series with driver Jason Keller. And the rumors were vehemently denied (of course!).

Well they were true. Brandon gave that backstabbing team all he had and they screwed him over. Which is basically the story of his NASCAR career.

Back in the CTS Brandon was screwed over by Red Horse Racing even after getting their first win - I have never forgiven Jeff Hammond for that (though it made me feel a little better after 2006 driver David Starr was also fired even though he won a race and finished 4th in points). If I were Aaron Fike I wouldn't count on being in that ride in 2008 unless he wins the bloody championship.

Brandon did enter the ARCA 200 at Daytona this year in his Brandon Whitt Racing Toyota and ran very well before a typical ARCA wreck took him out. He was on a radio show later and said he was planning on taking the car to Talladega...but he didn't appear on the entry list, and my guess is that sponsorship couldn't be found.

In April he was putting a deal together (you can read about it on his message board), but the sponsorship fell through...

It's just frustrating because I know how talented Brandon is, but none of the other team owners seem to realize it. They'll bring in drivers who do nothing but wreck but ignore the ones with raw talent sitting on the sidelines. Darrell Waltrip has been his biggest supporter and has interestingly made a few snide remarks about RHR and how it treats its drivers. He has also shown sympathy for Brandon's situation and I've been hoping for a long time that DW would give Brandon a chance in the #00 Tundra.

I just hope something happens soon because in this day and age when you're out of sight you're out of mind....