Even though he was born and raised in Texas, 19 year-old Brad Coleman left his Houston home at the age of 14 to spend his high school years living with his mentor and driving coach, Price Cobb, in Virginia. This week, the youngest driver in the NASCAR Busch Series will make his Virginia debut behind the wheel of the No. 18 Carino’s Italian Grill Chevrolet in the Circuit City 250 at Richmond International Raceway.
Coleman will bring significant momentum with him in the way of three consecutive Top 20 finishes in just five starts for Joe Gibbs Racing, earning an NASCAR Busch Series career-best pole and Top 10 spot last week at Talladega.
“I love Virginia, ” said Coleman. “I have a lot of great memories and special friends there and look forward to seeing them at the track. I will always consider my years at the Carlisle School in Martinsville some of the best years of my life. The people in Virginia are great people and it is a beautiful state. I will feel very much at home when we pull into Richmond, even though I have never raced on that track. ”
The teenage Joe Gibbs Racing sensation lived and trained with Cobb, a LeMans champion and well-known sports car legend. They would train daily at Virginia International Raceway, a complex 17-turn road course in Danville, Virginia, in sports cars and formula cars. Coleman would then go to the short-tracks at nearby South Boston and ACE Speedways with the successful Sellers Racing Team to train in stock cars to round out his program. Cobb credits Coleman’s phenomenal success to his natural talent and commitment to this unique “cross-training” approach.
“Brad was given a special gift to drive race cars the day he was born, ” stated Cobb. “He has an uncanny natural ability to navigate traffic on a race track unlike anyone I have ever seen. When you combine his special gift with the cross-training program he committed to at a very young age, you know why he is rising to the top of the sport. ”
H. C. Sellers thinks Coleman is one of those rare talents that come along once in a great while. “Brad came to us and had never been in a stock car, ” said Sellers, the brother and Crew Chief of Dodge Weekly Series 2005 National Champion Peyton Sellers. “He took to it immediately and won the rookie championship and was third overall in his first season. Midway through the season he was giving the veterans all they could handle. He has a special gift behind the wheel and I look forward to watching him in the Nextel Cup soon. ”
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