Brad Coleman undaunted by pressure of driving Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 at Nashville
Brad Coleman will make his first start of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing's NASCAR Nationwide Series team this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. // Sam Greenwood, Getty Images
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brad Coleman initially wasn’t too upset to learn that he would be replaced for the first NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Coleman had been told before the season started that Joey Logano would drive the team’s No. 20 Toyota at Nashville in April. That’s fine with me, Coleman thought.
“I like it because the way my schedule is, I’d have the first Nashville in April, and then my next race would be Milwaukee a couple months later,” Coleman said. “I wouldn’t have any time to get momentum. Now that I have the second Nashville and Milwaukee, I can get a little bit of a rhythm going.”
Then Coleman watched from the pits as Logano steered the No. 20 to victory lane.
“Man, I should’ve been in that car,” Coleman said at the time.
He’ll get the chance this weekend at Nashville, as Logano is racing in the Sprint Cup Series at Pocono Raceway. Though Coleman knows what is expected of him, Logano couldn’t help but remind him at a recent test at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va.
“You’re doing Nashville in a couple weeks,” Logano told Coleman. “No pressure.”
No kidding.
And Logano isn’t the only one who expects Coleman to win. Steve deSouza, who runs JGR’s Nationwide program, hopes to see Coleman, who is in his second tour with JGR, in victory lane in at least one of the eight races he’s driving this season.
“We’re really hoping that between that time and last year, he’s gained more experience,” deSouza said. “He’s grown now. I know [crew chief] Dave Rogers and his team focus is – and their comments to me are – ‘Brad Coleman will win races in our car. Period, end of subject. We’re not going to be here to train him. He’s going to win races.’”
No pressure, kid.
But the 21-year-old Coleman doesn’t worry about outside pressure. If anything, he thrives on it.
“I’m aware of all the expectations people put forth on me,” Coleman said. “I have the same expectations myself. Seeing what those cars did last year and then seeing how they’ve done this year – they’re great cars. I’m just excited to be able to hop in one of those and do a race.
“I’m pretty much guaranteeing myself a victory. I’m going to work hard. I’m going to work harder than anyone out there to get that victory.”
In 43 Nationwide starts, Coleman’s best finish is a second at Kentucky Speedway two years ago. That was in a JGR car and came in his ninth start in the series.
Coleman, in fact, has been solid in Gibbs’ cars, posting two other top-five finishes in his brief, 17-race career with JGR.
“I don’t think it was too surprising to us because we saw what we was doing in ARCA,” deSouza said. “Most times, we put guys in our car that once they get trained up, they can go. A couple years ago, there were a couple races he should’ve won.”
Coleman’s first tenure with Gibbs ended at the end of the 2007 season, when the team couldn’t put together full-season sponsorship for him. So he moved to Baker Curb Racing, a team formed from the former Brewco Motorsports team for which Coleman made his start.
But the association didn’t make it a full season, and Coleman left after finishing 10th at Watkins Glen.
“I don’t regret it at all,” Coleman said. “There were a lot of different reasons we had to leave them that people don’t know about. It was a good decision leaving them.”
Soon after, Hall of Fame Racing came calling, asking Coleman if he wanted to go Sprint Cup racing. The answer was, “Of course,” but it wasn’t that simple.
Coleman ran one Cup race for Hall of Fame, starting 43rd and finishing 38th in a measured race at Michigan last year. He knew the expectations going in were minimal: Make the race, don’t wreck, finish. And he did all that.
The team then put Ken Schrader in the car for Bristol, with Coleman going back in for California. But Schrader stayed in the car, and Coleman stayed on the sidelines. His Cup career could have gone the way of Moonlight Graham, but Coleman had no regrets.
“They were just trying to figure something out to get going,” Coleman said. “You could see after what happened in the offseason, they went to Yates [Racing] and had to change a bunch of stuff up, they’re just struggling to put things together.”
Hall of Fame contracted with Yates to run its team for 2009, making the switch from Toyota to Ford, too.
Coleman landed on his feet, too, rejoining Joe Gibbs Racing. Nashville will be the first of eight races for Coleman in the potent No. 20 Toyota, and clearly much is expected.
But he welcomes it, even laughs about it.
“Last year, I had to get passed by that car a couple times a race while it was the leader,” Coleman said. “I’m just really excited about being in the car, and I’m not going to be able to be passed by it.”
