Brian’s breakthrough performance in 2008 caught the attention of Wayne Taylor, but as Frisselle shares, the two had formed a bond long before they began working together.

Brian's father Brad had a long and illustrious career in sportscars, winning an IMSA title in a Datsun, racing with Brumos in Camel GT, and driving the aptly-named Frissbee Can-Am car. (LAT)

“Throughout my career in the Rolex Series, Wayne Taylor had always been one of the few team owners that would take notice to what we were doing. Wayne and Bob Stallings were always giving my brother and I great feedback on what we should be doing, and so on. I think after I had a couple of wins and the poles it was enough of a showing to get an opportunity with the SunTrust team. I just can't thank Wayne enough and the whole Wayne Taylor Racing team for giving me an opportunity and being able to team up with Max Angelelli.”

Taylor saw something in Brian that he knew his team needed. While Frisselle wasn’t completely polished, he was close enough to learn on the job while serving as teammate to Max Angelelli.

“Well, I have indeed known both Brian and Burt and the family for quite a while. We've had quite a few different drivers over the years, and there are a lot of quick drivers out there, but there’s not a lot of quick drivers that know how to win races. Last year, Brian broke through in the area I feel is critical, which is to win races and get poles. So for me he looked like a perfect fit for us because coming into this year, his goal was to be number two to Max and the goal was to try and win a championship.”

For Frisselle, the move to WTR came with a number of surprises. Taylor’s invitation to drive for WTR was the shot he’d been hoping for since 2005, and despite his rapid move up the ranks in DP, driving for a team with SunTrust’s reputation and experience took some getting used to.

“I have to admit, it was a very intimidating situation to come into. I always had been in the underdog situation and had never been in the kind of favorite situation where you're expected to win and when you do, no one’s really surprised. It’s amazing, when I first showed up to their shop at Indy not only is it a really nice shop in a pretty big facility, but what struck me was how many full-time employees they had! When I thought back to the other teams that I had raced for, it was shocking in many ways. I thought to myself, ‘Man, we were competing against this.’ That was definitely a wake up call. You just talk to the people on the team, whether it's our team manager, Simon (Hodgson), or our engineers…you find out what these guys have done in the past and they're just a wealth of knowledge; they’ve been with the best of the best.”

Frisselle admits that he’d grown accustomed to the pressure that comes with being a professional racing driver, but he’d never dealt with the kind of expectations the SunTrust opportunity placed on him. If he’d caught Taylor’s attention by overachieving at AIM, anything less than his best performances at SunTrust wouldn’t be forgotten as easily as they’d been elsewhere.

Frisselle's maturation as a driver at WTR is what Brian take the most pride in.

“I think one of the biggest things this year has been growing under the pressure that you are in a situation like I'm in, and still being able to get the best out of yourself. When there's so many responsibilities towards your sponsors and towards getting results, the fact of the matter is with a team like ours and the amount of resources we have and the quality of people we have to produce results. At first I guess coming in I was a little naïve. I just thought it was going to be easy but, still, it’s never easy and just dealing with that and getting accustomed to that type of pressure and that very serious work environment was hard at first.

Team owner Wayne Taylor has taken Brian under his wing this season, and Frisselle has responded with the best performances of his young career. (WTR)

“At times if you don't do your best you start digging yourself a hole mentally and it's all about being able to be comfortable in that environment and getting the most out of yourself. I think that was the biggest thing for me this year. It was an intimidating situation coming here but it was by far the best thing for my career. I've grown more as a driver more than at any other time in my career.”

As Leigh Diffey noted earlier, the pressures of representing the team and sponsor SunTrust both on and off the track forced Frisselle to grow up rapidly this year, and Taylor says he’s seen Brian come to grips with constantly being under the microscope.

“He did an outstanding job in the Rolex 24 Hours. When he got to the first two sprint races we could tell that he was under quite a lot of pressure because he put himself under pressure and struggled a little bit, not for speed or anything like that but he struggled from the standpoint of putting himself under too much stress. As the year has gone by, he’s just gotten more and more confidence and he's done a really good job this year. His job on our team was to basically bring the car in at the end of his stint in a good position so that Max could then fight for the lead and he’s done all those things. He only made one mistake this year which was at Barber.”

Everyone I spoke with, including Frisselle, singled-out his off-track excursion while running up front at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this year as the point where Brian’s character and maturity were most heavily tested. Thankfully, and through the support of his team and his own introspection, Frisselle emerged a much stronger driver in the following races.

“If I were to pinpoint a particular turning point for him,” said Diffey, “it was after making his mistake at Barber. I think you’re defined by how you respond to adversity, and that’s what Barber was for him. It was an unforced error, he missed his braking point, put it in the gravel, and finished far down the order. After a few years of driving for good teams –friendly and up-and-coming ones -- it wasn’t warm and fuzzy anymore. He could have lost his marbles or cried in his breakfast cereal, but he didn’t. He picked himself back up, and that for me was a defining moment for Brian Frisselle as a driver – admitting on national TV that he’d made a mistake, and at the next race, he was back on the horse and getting after it.”

Frisselle beat himself up after Barber – he says he’s his own worst critic – but through the help of the SunTrust team, he quickly put the incident behind him.

“That was definitely another growing moment for me in my career and it was a very tough situation because at the time I thought – most of the team I think thought – we had lost our championship hopes right there. Most years in the championship you have a result like that and you're not going to get back in it. This year we were fortunate to get back in it. But it was really tough. The team stayed behind me, they gave me the support, and said, ‘Hey, you’re still our guy, we’re still behind you, we’re all working together.’ That was really big for me. It was a tough situation but the team was great, we win together and we lose together, so I can't say enough about them that way.”

Standing up to take ownership of his mistake impressed Frisselle’s team owner as well. Wayne Taylor isn’t known for accepting anything less than perfection, but he knows Brian is a driver that continues to respond to the advice and mentorship he’s afforded.

“Drivers make mistakes, mechanics make mistakes and engineers make mistakes; so we’re all human. I know Max is always hard to have as a teammate but, Max is one of the best and I know he’s helped Brian grow a lot. And I hope I've helped him; he seems to listen to what I try and share with him. Barber was tough, but everything has turned out; we’re at Homestead with a shot at the championship.”

After an incredible season to date, Saturday’s race will provide Frisselle one more opportunity to deliver for SunTrust Racing. Looking back at the year so far, he considers himself pleased but not satisfied with his performances.

Brian's been more serious and focused this year, and it has shown in his maturation behind the wheel and in the paddock. (LAT)

“If I were to give myself a grade for this season I would probably give myself a “B”. You know, it was a hard situation to come into and there was definitely weekends where I felt, “Geez, I'm not getting the most out of myself, I'm not doing the job I know I can do.” And I think the number one area of improvement that I would like to improve is probably in qualifying. I’ve had a difficult year this year in qualifying; I was expecting a lot of poles but that hasn’t happened yet. If I am back with the team again next year, which I hope to be, I would definitely want to improve there and just give Max the best track position as possible. Because, at the end of the day, the starting driver's job is to give the finishing driver the best track position possible.”

How Saturday’s race in Homestead will play out has yet to be determined, but the job Brian has done in 2009 makes Taylor think he made the right choice by hiring Frisselle.

“Well, the guy is pretty young. He's always smiling. He's always positive. He's a great representative for the team and a representative for our sponsors. You know, he has all the right ingredients that you would want in a driver. A lot of people questioned me when I was hiring him. Many people said, ‘Oh, what the heck is he thinking?’ I can’t imagine they’re saying that anymore.”