NASCAR: Brennan Poole looks to make his return in trucks
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Brennan Poole wasn't willing to walk away from a NASCAR career without a fight.
Thanks to On Point Motorsports, he won’t have to.
Last month, OPM announced Poole, 27, will drive the No. 30 Toyota Tundra for the 2019 season. On Tuesday, the team added Bad Boy Mowers as the primary sponsor for the season-opening NextEra Energy 250 Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
“I’m excited,” Poole said. “I’m just happy to be racing again and doing what I love to do.”
After two seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing in the Xfinity Series, Poole was dismissed from the team at the end of the 2017 campaign. Last June, Poole filed a lawsuit against CGR and Spire Sports and Entertainment—the agency that once represented him—claiming the pair conspired and colluded to retain Poole’s sponsor DC Solar prior to releasing the driver.
The suit has since been settled, and Poole has moved on. But last year was difficult, as the driver watched from the sidelines. He didn’t compete again until November—in the No. 35 truck fielded by NextGen Motorsports at Texas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It’s tough,” Poole said. “I’ve experienced it before in the early parts of my career—2013 and 2104—where I really didn’t get to race much. I had an understanding of what it was going to be like, but it’s certainly hard when you’ve had consistency with three years being behind the wheel every week, and then not being able to do it is tough, because it’s all you want to do.
“I feel like I got through the year OK. I got to run a couple of races at the end of the year to get some seat time to prepare for this coming season. And those couple of races got me feeling great about the things I was working on and where I was headed for 2019—even if the beginning of the year was kind of hard.”
On Point Motorsports fielded a truck in five races last year for the trio of Jeb Burton, Scott Lagasse Jr., and Austin Theriault, who scored the team’s first top-10 finish, an eighth-place result at Las Vegas. The Denver, N.C.-based organization run by crew chief Steven Lane also dabbles in ARCA.
“They’re a new team put together by Steven Lane and James Whitener,” Poole said. “It was actually Brent Bushu who contacted me in early December about seriously putting something together. Since December, I spent a whole lot of time with them—and just about every day since the new year after I got back from spending time with family over the holidays.
“We’ve been working and preparing for Daytona, getting familiar with each other and building chemistry between me and all of the crew guys. I’m excited. I have a lot of confidence in Steven. He has a lot of experience and has been around a long time. We’re going to have some speed.”
Although Poole was once being fast-tracked for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, he doesn’t look at his move to trucks as taking a step back. He produced one pole, eight top fives and 36 top 10s in 83 Xfinity Series races. In three career starts behind the wheel of a truck, Poole’s best finish is 11th at Las Vegas.
Poole will compete for truck rookie honors in 2019. With the level of competition in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Poole can’t wait to return to competition.
“I’m just grateful to be back on the track and race,” Poole said. “I’ve certainly watched a lot of the truck guys—especially the veterans. Matt Crafton, I’ve spent a lot of time with him on and off the track. So I’m excited about spending more time with him. Grant Enfinger, there’s just a lot of guys—even the younger kids—Ben Rhodes, Todd Gilliland.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m excited about racing full-time and racing for a championship.”
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