turning in an impressive run from 23rd to 6th in the Dwight Huffman Memorial race, on of the biggest races in Late Model Stock Car racing, the young driver has been on somewhat of a roll.

From that impressive sixth place effort, Poole has been poised and while the early season was spent getting him familiar with his team and his team familiar with him, recently they've been working together nicely. While Poole stumbled a little in the next UARA-STARS Series race with a bad set of tires he quickly rebounded with an eighth place effort at Ace Speedway, his first top ten finish in the UARA-STARS Series.

Poole and his team didn't stop there as they rolled just eight days later to a second straight eighth place finish at Myrtle Beach Speedway, his second straight top ten finish and now he's starting to carry a little momentum. The 18-year old driver then prepared to roll with the FatHead Racing team into one of the toughest tracks the tour faces all season long, the 3/10 mile high banked bullring of Newport Speedway in Newport, TN.

Poole being a rookie was expected to struggle in the 150-lap race as most rookies in the series have in the past, but Poole wasn't ready to be just another face in the crowd, he came to race. With a Friday evening test session preceding the Saturday night race, Poole was showing he was up to speed early turning in some impressive laps on the fast paced track. He backed it up with fast showing in the two practice sessions on Saturday, but a late brush with the wall left a little question heading into qualifying.

No worries for the young driver as he went out and turned a lap of 13.175 seconds, just 0.159 seconds off the pole speed of 13.016 seconds and that was good enough for a seventh place starting position. While the field was tight in qualifying, it proved to be even tighter in the race as the field seemed to turn in laps as fast as the blink of an eye on the smallest track that the UARA-STARS Series races on. Poole mounted an early charge from his seventh place start up to fifth place as he used the inside line to kick some of the top names in Late Model Stock Car racing behind him.

Poole would find himself with a chance to move up as one of the other competitors had a little trouble in front of him, but as the two got closer they made contact and that left a near six inch gash in Poole's right front tire. The contact seemed innocent enough, but Poole was going to have to fight the fact that the tire would be losing air for the rest of the race and this incident took place on lap 39. That left 111 laps to go, but long green flag runs aided the young drivers mission and even helped him move up to fourth at one point in the race.

On a late restart the air leaking from the tire caused Poole to get a little loose heading into one of the turns and that cost him fourth and dropped the driver back to fifth. With a late race 45-minute rain delay the young driver had to do all he could to keep the car from getting out from under him after the tire had all that time to leak down, but The Woodlands, Texas native was up to the task.

With a six lap dash to the finish following the rain delay, Poole held his position and drove home to a fifth place finish, his first top five finish in UARA-STARS Series competition, one of the toughest racing series in the world and on one of the toughest tracks the series drivers face this season. Poole unquestionably has his racing program headed in the right direction and as the UARA-STARS Series season heads for a conclusion with just four races remaining the young driver is confident things will only get better.

"We've worked really hard to get to this point; Where we can start putting together a string of good finishes," said Poole following the grueling 150-lap race at Newport. "David(King), my crew chief and Jamie(Yelton), my car owner, they both just keep digging and despite a few set backs this season we've got things going in the right direction. This whole team has worked hard and I can't tell you how much of a weight is off my shoulders to be hitting our stride right now."

Poole certainly is hitting his stride right now, but it's not just the hard work of the team that's got the young driver turning in his best performances of the season.

"It takes a while to get used to these cars and how they react, it's all about finesse and I'm finally starting to get in a groove out there," said Poole. "This track was tough, but all these races are tough, you are racing against guys who have a ton of experience and that was just my 12th UARA race, so I think we're doing pretty good."

Poole will have a couple of weeks off now as the UARA-STARS Series will be off for the next three weeks before heading back to Dillon Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 19th, where he had his best performance of the season, just not the results to show it.

"Going back to Dillon is going to be a lot of fun," explained an excited Poole. "We were fast off the trailer down there in May and that was my best qualifying effort. We're expecting to go there and win, because we know that's what we're capable of. We had the best car there earlier this season and I don't see any reason why we won't have the best car in a couple of weeks."

Poole's effort at Dillon was nothing short of amazing for the young driver, who then was only in his fifth UARA series start. He paced much of the practice sessions and then qualified on the outside pole and when the green flag dropped the pole sitter spun his tires and Poole jumped out into the lead, but the UARA officials decided to black flag the young driver. Poole then made his way from the rear of the field all the way back to fourth and challenged for third when his car's engine began to miss.

Poole pulled off the track and gave up his battle for third so he wouldn't hurt the engine any further, but the rest of the field knew he was there and they know he'll be one of the contenders as the series heads back there in a few weeks.

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.