Young Canadian racer J.R. Fitzpatrick receives confidence boost from Daytona run
FONTANA, Calif. – J.R. Fitzpatrick is a partially deaf Canadian racer who didn’t think he’d be making much noise in the United States after a couple of Nationwide Series events didn’t go all that well in 2007.
But after leading 17 laps and finishing fourth in the season-opening Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway last week, Fitzpatrick is making a case for himself to run the whole season for TRG Motorsports.
“We’re all pumped up,” Fitzpatrick said Thursday prior to practice at California Speedway for Saturday’s race. “We know we’ve got to come back down to [an even] level. We want to come out of here with a truck that is one piece; that’s our main goal.
“Because we got a top-five, we’re not going to say that we’re going to go win now. We’re just going to keep trying to get top-10s and top-fives.”
The 20-year-old Fitzpatrick won the 2006 Canadian stock-car series title (the year before NASCAR took over the series) and was the 2007 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series most popular driver.
His performance at Daytona made his friends north of the border take notice.
“My phone was so full of messages, it took me about eight hours to just go through them,” Fitzpatrick said. “I had a lot of people saying that they were proud of me being a Canadian racer and doing well.”
Fitzpatrick admits that his Canadian racing experience doesn’t translate well to the trucks.
“They’re completely different animals, and we’re coming to way bigger tracks,” said Fitzpatrick, who finished sixth and seventh in the Canadian series standings the last two years. “It helped me in handling an ill-handling car because they don’t drive as good as these. … I just was running against good competition [in Canada]. There was good competition in that group, and there are tons of good competition in this garage.”
Among that competition in the Trucks was Kyle Busch, who ran on Fitzpatrick’s bumper at Daytona. After the race, Fitzpatrick said it was cool to have someone like Busch on his tail.
“He did a fine job,” Busch said. “He did exactly what he was supposed to do.”
Fitzpatrick was out front on old tires, and crew chief Butch Hylton didn’t hesitate to put him out there.
“J.R. has won a lot of national races in Canada, and he has run up front a lot in his series, so I don’t think it bothers him,” Hylton said. “He is not the type to be intimidated.”
Fitzpatrick still isn’t guaranteed the entire season with TRG, and he said talks continue about sponsorship with Canadian companies and other businesses.
The driver is used to dealing with a little bit of adversity, having lived his entire life partially deaf.
Fitzpatrick said he has been partially deaf since he was born, and while he could hear someone who is close by without his hearing aids, he might not be able to hear someone from farther away.
But as far as racing, Fitzpatrick said he doesn’t have to do anything special.
“It doesn’t affect anything at all,” Fitzpatrick said.
Hylton said he has not had any problems with Fitzpatrick hearing him. Fitzpatrick doesn’t need hearing aids in the car because the normal racer ear buds work fine.
“It’s kind of neat about him,” Hylton said. “I think a lot of young kids could maybe get some inspiration from that, that just because you’re a little deaf or [completely] deaf, keep digging.”
There are many people in the garage who struggle with hearing because they don’t wear protection while around the revved engines.
“I know I struggle a little bit with my hearing over the years in the garage area,” Hylton said. “I think with his hearing aids in and his buds in [when racing], he does hear better than I do. I struggle a little bit on the box at Bristol and Martinsville.”
Bristol and Martinsville seem a long distance from Canada for Fitzpatrick, who wasn’t sure even last year if he would ever find a way to run up front in NASCAR.
He had competed in two events in what was then known as the Busch Series in 2007 on the road courses and finished 33rd and 43rd. He then ran three Truck races for DGM Racing and TRG near the end of the 2007 season, with a best finish was 21st at Martinsville.
Now the native of Cambridge, Ontario, (just west of Toronto) has rookie-of-the-year honors in his sights despite having just five NASCAR starts in the United States prior to this year.
“When we won our first [Canadian] championship, I figured that we were doing well, but after running those Busch races I ran, I never thought I was going to be able to compete at this level,” Fitzpatrick said. “When we ran the three races last year, I figured I could run near the back.
“Last week really pumped me up, but I want to stay level-headed because if I start riding high all the time, that’s when you get in trouble.”
