Fitzpatrick learning ropes of NASCAR in Truck Series (cont'd)

After finishing seventh in the Canadian Tire Series standings last fall, the native of Cambridge, Ontario, wound up driving for Mario Gosselin at Martinsville. That got him a two-race trial with Buckler, and Fitzpatrick immediately impressed his new owner by qualifying sixth at Phoenix. Now it's a matter of getting seat time.

"I'm just trying to learn how forgiving these trucks are," Fitzpatrick said. "You can really drive them hard. There's a lot of downforce on the front of them so they handle really well. I guess I'm just trying to learn how easy they are.

J.R. Fitzpatrick

Season Statistics

Race	Start	Finish	Status	Led
Daytona	14	4	running	17
Fontana	22	22	running	0
Atlanta	7	22	running	0
Totals	14.3	16.0		17

"It's just how big these tracks are, finding the line, your throttle points, your braking points, if you use brake at all," Fitzpatrick said. "That's the biggest thing I'm trying to learn."

Not only is Fitzpatrick having to deal with a driving a truck, but he's competing at places he's seeing for the first time.

"I'm still trying to learn all these tracks," Fitzpatrick said. "We just couldn't get the push out of the truck [at Fontana]. We were tight all day. I had to roll way out of the gas. If I didn't get caught speeding on pit road, we probably would have ended up around 15th, and I would have been happy about that. But it was driver error. Everything went wrong that day. We had radio communication problems, but that's all behind us now."

The current plan is for Fitzpatrick to race the entire season in the No. 7 Chevrolet and compete for the rookie title.

"We're really going to try," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm with a really good team, and I think we have a good chance of winning rookie of the year. Some of these guys have been to all these tracks before, maybe not in a truck, but they've been in this size tracks. I'm still trying to learn the tracks so they have a small edge, but we're just going to do what we do."

If all goes according to plan, he won't have to fly home every weekend, as he's done since Daytona. He planned to use the time before the series resumes at Martinsville to find a place in North Carolina. Still, there's something to be said for being Cambridge's favorite son.

"They're all very supportive and very pumped up," Fitzpatrick said. "I went into the local Shortstop store and there's a paper with the Daytona race on it and everything like that, so I have a lot of support back home and I appreciate all that."