Talladega 2016. Talladega 2024. Daytona 2026… and now, Atlanta 2026.
After more than a decade of rooting and gouging for every possible opportunity in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, that elusive first career victory was within an arm’s length for Brennan Poole (again) on Saturday at EchoPark Speedway.
But, like the many other times an opportunity to win flashed in front of Poole’s eyes, it just wasn’t meant to be.
The driver of Alpha Prime Racing’s No. 44 Chevrolet spent much of the night nowhere close to being in the picture for the victory, until a couple of big wrecks late in the going continually boosted the track position for the CW & Sons/Clark’s Directional Boring-sponsored machine – allowing Poole to restart the second of two overtime attempts on the inside of the second row.
When the outside line faded – a result of Ryan Sieg running out of gas – Poole suddenly found himself second, and before he knew it, he was slicing to the inside lane on the backstretch to take over the race-lead from Nick Sanchez coming to the white flag.
Poole had found the glass slipper and held it firmly in his hands until… it shattered into a million pieces.
“I got a really good restart pushing [Nick Sanchez], Justin [Allgaier] pushed me perfectly – another great speedway effort working with him – and I pushed the No. 87 up, got underneath him, Justin stayed with me and pushed me to the lead,” Poole explained after the race. “I felt like I needed to be leading at the white flag lap, just because how the night had been and I felt like there was a good chance that we wouldn’t make it back.”
Trying to defend a potential first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory – for both himself, and Alpha Prime Racing – Poole attempted to block a major run by Sanchez, who ducked low, made contact with the car to the inside, and shot them both into the outside wall hard.
“I felt like I was in the perfect position, the No. 87 was coming with a run, and I think he – you know, you’re trying to block and defend and he just kind of drove into the left-rear and kind of wrecked us both,” Poole explained further. “I don’t know, it’s the last lap, you’re trying to make big moves, stay out front and have a shot at the win. I feel like with our small team, no leased engines – I mean, our engine is probably five years old, and the cars are old, and everything we’re doing, we’re just trying to maximize everything we have.”
Poole limped it back to the start-finish line in 17th.
“I’ve got a lot of guys behind me that believe in me, just a lot of fun. I just really want to get these guys to Victory Lane, regardless of the circumstances of what we have to work with. Wish we could have finished it off, but we’ll keep working, we’ve got plenty of more races left.”
Over the years the superspeedways have been kind to Poole, when it comes to avoiding wrecks. But they’ve certainly had no mercy on The Woodlands, Texas-native when it comes to heartbreak, with several close-calls throughout his career.
In 2016, Poole got to the start-finish line first, but NASCAR determined a caution had been displayed, and the then rookie, got demoted to third. His career took him elsewhere for several years, but when he returned to O’Reilly with Alpha Prime Racing, 2024 saw him run as high as second on the last lap at Talladega, before losing to the RCR teammates. At Daytona in February, Poole was in second, with a huge run on the race-leader, before getting nerfed out of line and tossed out of the top 10.
Saturday wasn’t a fluke. But make no mistake, Poole doesn’t believe he’s owed anything.
“I don’t know, I just try to show up and be the best race car driver that I can be prepare, and do all of the right things to put myself in a position every time we come to a place like this, to have a shot at the win, and I’ve had multiple times now here I’ve almost been in Victory Lane with these No. 44 guys, so we’ve got to keep working, there’s going to be another race, and we’ll have to get after it and see what we can do,” Poole added. “No, I don’t feel like I’m owed anything, I just want to keep working and fighting, and I’m so grateful that I still get to be here and drive a race car.”
For the 35-year-old, there’s another opportunity to get a good result at a superspeedway in a couple of weeks time, at Daytona International Speedway, and maybe, just maybe, he can avenge his close-call from February, and from EchoPark Speedway, when he returns to “The World Center of Racing”.
