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[/media-credit]Leading the points standings may look like it was easily accomplished on paper by having solid finishes. However, for ARCA Racing Series points leader Brennan Poole, it wasn’t as easy as it looked as the team has had its fair share of adversity already this year.
At Daytona, Poole had to start 33rd and finished the race in the seventh.
“It was my first time on Superspeedway,” he comments. “I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.”
The following weekend at Mobile, he blew the motor on the first lap of practice so he got no practice and barely got in line to qualify. Despite that, the Venturini Motorsports team was able to qualify seventh and finish seventh.
At the third race of the season at Salem, the clutch broke right when Poole went out to qualify so the team had to change the clutch and Poole had to start the race from the back of the pack.
“I ended up finishing third so I know we had a great run there and the car was really strong,” he says. “That was great and kept building on the points lead.”
The last race at Talladega, Poole had to start fourth due to qualifying being rained out and being based on owner’s points. However on lap 11, Poole was involved in the wreck and substained some minor damage to the front of the car. The team kept making pit stops to make repairs, at one point running in the 22nd position, and came back to finish in eighth at the end of the race.
“I think we’ve had a great start to the year,” he says. “We’re only four races in and finished in the top 10 in all four races and we’ve had some setbacks that we have had to overcome. All in all, it’s been a great a year.
“My team has done a great job helping me as a driver to overcome some of the things I’ve had to deal with and we’ve just been able to come through and it’s been a great start to the year.”
There doesn’t look to be anything slowing down Poole in the future either as he heads to Toledo Speedway, which is right up his alley as it’s just like the tracks he used to race in Late Models.
Last year, Poole was leading on the last lap when he was turned around by Ty Dillon on the last lap. This year, Poole is looking for victory as he is taking the same car back again this year.
“I feel confident about it – going to have the same crew chief, Billy Venturini,” he says. “I think we’re going to be in the contention when we go there. Plus, Toledo is just a great track. It’s a lot of fun and growing up, I’ve ran Late Model stuff the last three years before getting into the ARCA Series and it just reminds me of a lot of the Late Model tracks that I ran on. It’s kind of a comfort zone for me because I’m very comfortable about tracks like that and the short track style.”
Keeping with the short tracks, the sixth race of the schedule is at Elko Speedway.
“Another place I feel confident about because it’s the place I have the most experience,” he continues. “Then Pocono and Michigan. Pocono, last year, we saw on the pole, led a big chunk of the race and finished fifth so we got a couple of tracks that are good tracks for us and I’m just excited. I love racing, I’m a competitor and I’m just looking forward to getting to some of these places.”
Poole got interested in cars and racing after a trip to Toys R Us at the age of two. His dad took him there to buy him a plastic golf set for his second birthday as his dad wanted him to be a golfer.
“I got in one of those plastic little battery powered corvettes and was driving around the store so my mom convinced my dad that he had to get it for me,” he says. “I loved cars, I played with cars all the time. at the time, my dad was working in auto repair and one of the managers at the store he worked at told him about quarter midget racing, which was five miles from the house we lived in at the time in California. He took me out there when I was four. We watched the race that night and he asked me if it was something I wanted to do and I told him yeah. So for my fifth birthday, he got me a car and I’ve been racing ever since.”
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[/media-credit]From there, Poole kept moving up the ranks and began racing UARA Late Models in 2009, winning rookie of the year. The following season, he won six races, including three in a row, and caught the eye of Venturini Motorsports General Manager Billy Venturini.
“He tried to get me into a car in 2010, but we just couldn’t get anything worked out,” Poole says.
In 2011, Poole started his own team with his father to continue late model racing.
“It’s tough ‘cause my dad lives in Texas; I live out here by myself,” the 21-year-old continues. “So the team was run out of Hickory with people we worked with the year before. We were running UARA at Hickory and Billy came out to watch that night and we just had an incredible night. Ended up winning the race and Billy called us and wanted us to come meet with him again. We ended up reaching something where I could get into the car in 2011.”
In his first start at Salem Speedway, Poole found victory lane and has been enjoying the experience ever since.
“It’s just been a blessing,” he says. “God’s always opens up the doors for me at the right time, at the right place, always put me in the right position. Just keeping my trust in him every day and he seems to be in control.”
This year marks a special year for Venturini Motorsports as it is their 30th year. Poole jokes it’d be neat to win the championship as Bill Venturini’s last championship came in 1991, the year that Poole was born.
“They’re a great family,” he adds. “I spend a lot of time with them being here by myself. I don’t know a lot of people so I’m always here at the shop – I’m at the shop right now. It’s just a great family. It’s a family organization – Billy’s uncles, aunts and cousins are all involved in the team. I think that’s what makes them such a strong organization. It’s just been fun working with them. I’m just happy to be a part of it.
“I got to race Billy’s old paint scheme at Daytona and Talladega, maybe a few more times this year. so that’s been kind of an honor to drive the old blue and orange paint scheme. I just feel blessed to be a part of it. It’s just been a lot of fun.”
Being at Venturini Motorsports within their driver development program, Poole is right now the most experienced on the team.
“It’s kind of funny ‘cause I’ve only ran seven ARCA races to this point,” he says. “It sounds weird to say but as the 21-year-old, I’m the guy that has the most experience so it’s been fun to have younger guys come up to me and ask me questions. It’s just kind of cool. I’ve never really been in this position before; I’ve always been the guy looking for advice. But here, there are so many young guys.”
Poole has had a great time with his teammates so far at Venturini as he’s been impressed by Erik Jones, who finished fifth at Salem Speedway at the age of 15. He has also become close friends with Ryan Reed.
“We’re close in age so we have a good relationship together; we play xbox together at night,” he says. “We race against each other on the computer. We have a pretty good relationship and I think we just go over things together a little bit. I think it’s been a help for me and a help for him as well. It just helps when you’ve got someone close in your age group cause you help support each other.
“At the end of the day at Venturini Motorsports, we’re all pulling for our teammates. We want to win because we’re all competitors, but we’re happy if another person wins the race ‘cause we all know how hard it is to win one of these races. It’s extremely tough. You win a race at the ARCA level, that’s pretty impressive.”
