in a full-fendered stock car before March of this year.

Poole could have fell out of the race early with mechanical troubles, or he could have got caught up in one of the early wrecks like many of the veteran racers did, but the rookie just continued to impress. In fact he put in a flawless run moving up during the early laps and putting himself among the top five before the halfway point. A mandatory invert for the top 5 cars at the halfway point in the race put Poole in third for the restart and it wasn't long before he was running second and gunning for the leader.

Fans in the stands, crew members along pit road, officials ... they were all scratching their heads wondering, "Who's Brennan Poole?" But, the young driver was about to give them a lesson in who he was and what kind of driver he was as he went to challenging for the lead and took it away easily. Poole battled to stay in the lead, but after the eventual winner jumped the next to last restart, it led to a bad call by the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series officials, that ultimately cost him a chance at the win.

Being placed on the outside for the final double-file restart would put Poole in a position that he couldn't overcome as he got shoved to the extreme outside going into turn one on a green, white, checkered finish as the leader and third place starter made it three-wide into turn one. Poole wasn't able to get back to challenge for the lead and settled for a third place finish.

Third place for a true Late Model Stock Car rookie was the best finish in the history of the Bailey's 300, the largest race for Late Model Stock Cars that draws a crowd of over 25,000 people annually to Martinsville Speedway, the same track that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competes on twice a year. Falling short of the victory was disappointing for the 18-year old driver, but all in all it was a great day on Late Model Stock Car racing's grandest stage.

"We had a good car all day; Jamie(Yelton, team owner), David(King, crew chief) and the crew gave me everything I needed to win and we were in good position until that bad call late in the race," said Poole. "Everybody has been coming over to congratulate me for the run we've had, but I just wish things would have been a little different in the final laps and we might be celebrating this win."

Poole's performance certainly caught the eye of a lot of people in garage and even some of the higher-ups in the NASCAR community including driver scout, David Smith. Smith was in attendance at the event and had nothing, but positive things to say about Poole.

"The standout performance was Brennan Poole's realization of his potential. Poole qualified tenth, ceased to make a mistake, and found himself battling for the win until the final turn on lap 200," said Smith in an article on his website www.DavidSmithMotorsports.com.

There's no doubt that Poole opened a lot of eyes with his performance, but with three races left in the UARA-STARS Series season he's got to turn his focus back to those races and back to winning the Rookie of the Year award.

"As great as Martinsville was, it's our last race now and we've got to turn our focus to the next UARA race at Hickory Motor Speedway in a couple of weeks," commented Poole. "Hickory hasn't been our best track, we've struggled there despite having a few good runs, but I think with the momentum we've got coming off of that run at Martinsville we can have our best performance yet at Hickory."

Poole currently leads the UARA Rookie of the Year standings, but will have to put together three solid performances in the final three races beginning with Hickory, then on to Concord Speedway and then to Kingsport Speedway for the season finale on November 7th.

It was also a huge day for FatHead Racing and team owner, Jamie Yelton as he had the only Driver Development team to qualify in on time for this race among 85-cars as well as the only top ten finish for Driver Develpement teams. Yelton and his team put a great car together for Poole and Poole lived up to his potential in the ride.

Brennan Poole isn't a household name... yet, but with performances like the one in the Bailey's 300 against all of the best Late Model Stock Car racers in the country, he's beginning to pop up on more and more people's radar.

Brennan is supported by Midas Total Car Care, TXAZ Auto Enterprise, Marlowe Racing Chassis, Tiger Rear Ends, Blake Carburetors and Bearden Oil Racing Fuels. For more on Brennan Poole please visit his website at www.brennanpoole.com or contact RaceBrand Driver Management at (276) 613-4208.