Coleman says he will drive Hall of Fame entry again this season
FONTANA, Calif. – Brad Coleman was hoping to be racing at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway this weekend. Now he’s unsure of exactly when he will get back in the seat of a race car.
But he expects it will be before the end of the year. The 20-year-old driver started the season as a development driver for Hall of Fame Racing and is under contract with the team for 2009.
Coleman drove the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup car at Michigan, but has not raced the car since then.
“I’ve learned how to deal with adversity in this business,” Coleman said. “You can have something bad happen at any time. You can be having the best year of your career and then before the year is over, it will turn into your worst pretty quickly.
“You’ve always just got to remember to keep your head up and never give up. … I have no idea [about my 2009 schedule]. I want to get as much seat time as I can.”
Coleman drove a partial Nationwide Series schedule last year for Joe Gibbs Racing and had three top-five finishes. This year, he had been driving for the independent Baker Curb Racing team until he got in the Cup car for Hall of Fame at Michigan. At that time, he expected he would run in several Cup events through the remainder of the season.
But with the team outside the top 35 in points, it has had Ken Schrader drive the car the last two races and Schrader and JGR driver Joey Logano will drive the car for most of the remainder of the season.
“I’m going to do a couple of more races before the year is over,” Coleman said. “Being outside the top 35 in owner points, they’ve got to make last-minute decisions for drivers. Week to week, they’ve got to make business decisions.”
Coleman tested the Cup car this past week at Kansas Speedway in a Goodyear tire test and the team has indicated that it is still committed to his development.
At Michigan, Coleman completed 197 of the 200 laps, starting 43rd and finished 38th.
“I thought it was a great experience,” Coleman said. “The team gave me goals going into that weekend: They wanted me to qualify for the race, they wanted me to keep all the fenders on it and finish the race, completing as many laps as I could.
“That’s what I did. … It was tough not being able to be a little bit faster, but I’ve got to get that seat time.”
