LAS VEGAS, Nev – For Brennan Poole, a racer wants to always win, but a quiet top-10 finish in Saturday’s Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway was equally as fine by him.
The first of a 15 race schedule in HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi had its challenges, but a late-race gamble paid off with a ninth place finish in Las Vegas.
How fitting.
“It was a great first day,” said Poole, driving the No. 42 DC Solar Chevrolet. “I’m proud to give DC Solar and HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi a good finish. We got a lot better during
the race and I learned a ton. We are going to build on this momentum and get the No. 42 team to victory lane.
“All in all, I had a lot of fun racing with guys I have looked up to for a long time.”
Indeed, the Woodlands, Texas native found himself some of XFINITY’S best, but yet it was in the tire tracks of reining XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott where Poole accelerated his learning curve during the 200-lap race.
“It was good to run behind a lead car like Chase,” Poole added. “I saw where I was messing up. I fixed it and ran times fast enough to run top-10. I needed to see that. It helped me.”
Despite infrequent starts in a race car, particularly last season in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, Poole nicknamed “The Bull” carried himself well during Friday’s XFINITY Series practice at the 1.5-mile oval.
That confidence carried over to qualifying on Saturday morning, where Poole easily pulled through the first round of knockout qualifying and landed 16th on the starting grid for his NASCAR debut.
Minding his matters and learning, Poole raced the track throughout the race and hovered comfortably inside the top-20, but when the race stretched into an extremely long green-flag run, crew chief Mike Shiplett elected to roll the dice and keep his rookie on track.
The decision delivered a blackjack like result when the fourth caution flag of the event race flew nearing the end of green flag pit stops. Poole found himself back on the lead lap after an annihilating tear through the field by eventual winner Austin Dillon.
Finding themselves in the top-10 for the restart, Poole continued his learning day over the next 40 laps, experienced what limits he could and could not push – but doing so racing with the series’ superstars.
Patience proved ultimately to be Poole’s best friend and it rewarded the 24-year old with the No. 42 team’s third consecutive top-10 finish in 2015.
“I go to the race track to win, so like I always say I just take it one lap at a time to try to put my team in the best position possible and hopefully end up in victory lane. Today, it was just ninth. Again, I learned a lot though and I need to be better for my guys and carry this knowledge I have now into Phoenix next weekend.”
Team owner Harry Scott didn’t shy away from how proud he was of his newest protégé effort on Saturday.
“I’m proud of Brennan’s focus all weekend on the goals we set together,” he said. “He learned every lap and got faster in both practices and during the race. That focus earned him a top-10 finish in his first XFINITY Series race, quite an accomplishment.
“The entire 42 team is impressed and excited about Brennan’s next race at Phoenix.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
