After missing the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway due to the lack of sponsorship, Brennan Poole and the No. 30 On Point Motorsports team returned with redemption in mind and wanting more after last week.
Poole and the No. 30 team started 17th and quietly ran under the radar all night long. But when it mattered most during a late race restart with three to go, he found himself inside the top three with a shot at the upset win for a small underfunded team.
Poole tried all he could to chase down race leader Kyle Busch, but ultimately, wound up 1.115 seconds short.
Poole was ecstatic about his second place finish, despite not being able to chase down Busch for the race win.
“I just gave it everything I had,” Poole said in his Fox Sports 1 post-race interview. “I found a little something there running on the top lane of the restarts and it worked out really good. I can’t thank MadVapes, Blu this weekend. It sucks that we missed Kansas last week. The work that the guys do with literally no funding is ridiculous. Ran second tonight to Kyle Busch with a broken sway bar. So, pretty proud of the effort. I know we got a lot more chances with this coming up in our future to get this Toyota Tundra to victory lane, but I’m excited tonight and I may even go grab a beer when I get home.”
It was Poole’s first top five of his Truck Series career in over 10n starts and the best finish of his Truck Series career.
After a heartbreak last weekend in Kansas, Stewart Friesen, driver of the No. 52 Halmar Racing Chevrolet was looking to rebound this weekend at Charlotte and he almost did just that.
Friesen started second and ran inside the top-10 most of the night, finishing fifth and sixth in both stages. He was up front and found himself in the top five late in the race, but had to settle for another top-five finish, finishing third for his fourth top five of the year.
“These guys work so hard,” Friesen said to MRN Radio. “All of these guys work so hard. Thanks to Chris Larsen, Team Chevy and GMS Fab Shop. They got their heads down and working hard, we’re catching them. Kyle (Busch) ended up spanking us at the end here. I know he got out and had that good run there, but we got some good notes. We’re going to keep working on it and get them at the end of the year when the money is on the line. Speaking of money on the line the next three weeks, thanks to Gander Outdoors. That’s pretty badass. We put up a lot of money to race our modified in modified country in the northeast. We’re going to go to our two favorite tracks, Texas and Iowa, and this is not my favorite track, so I’m ready to get out of here.”
