Brennan Poole

BRENNAN POOL

TURNING PROMISE INTO PERFORMANCE

By Alex Apple

Brennan Poole has finally reached the pinnacle, the shining accomplishment he could not wait to add to his resume.

In December, Poole announced he would race full-time for Premium Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series beginning in 2020.

That move comes after racing in 2019 for Poole on the GANDER RV & OUTDOORS Truck Series where he drove the No. 30 truck with On Point Motorsports, but much of his success comes from the ARCA Series where he amassed six victories over four seasons.

For all his accomplishments, Poole needs to show more consistency in 2020 – and try to do so on racing’s biggest stage. He has just four top-10s in 16 truck starts and 36 top-10s in 83 xfinity starts.

Many NASCAR fans will remember Poole’s 2016 performance at Darlington when he finished fifth but also refused to back down from Kevin Harvick in the middle of the race, going toe to toe with one of NASCAR’s best.

“I’m very happy to welcome Brennan and his group to the Premium Motorsports family,” team owner Jay Robinson said in the press release. “Brennan is a very talented and dedicated young man, I believe he has a very bright future in the NASCAR Cup Series.”

Poole is taking over for Ross Chastain, who made the majority of 2019 Cup starts in the car Poole will drive. He joins a crop of rookies that includes Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Cole Custer. Throughout his career, Poole has developed a reputation for racing hard, sometimes too hard in the eyes of his competitors. In May of 2019, Poole was racing in the Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and garnered a career-best runner-up finish there.

After the race, the competitive California native admitted to NASCAR.com that he was trying to get closer to winner Kyle Busch to spin him out.

“I tried. I tried. I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “I tried to get to his corner and if I spun him, I spun him. It was going to be what it was there at the end.”

That second-place finish looks even more impressive when you consider it came with a broken sway bar. On the final restart, Poole knew he had a decent shot at grabbing his first NASCAR national Series victory.

“I knew I was going to have a shot at it and I got a good run, I was pushing Kyle (Busch) down the backstretch and I probably pulled off of him a little bit too soon and dove in the corner,” he said to NASCAR.com. “I tried to tag him a little bit and slow him down and get some side draft and I just couldn’t quite get here and he got me.”

It’s that competitive spirit that Poole and Premium Motorsports hope he uses for success in 2020. Few rookies go through a first season without their fair share of peaks and valleys, but Poole has prepared since the age of 20 for this opportunity.

He still holds the record for most UARA-Stars wins in a season – an accolade he earned at the age of 19. Turning promise into performance is Poole’s next big step.