Green flag for NASCAR
Rookie Brennan Poole of The Woodlands returns to track in Darlington.
Brennan Poole is part of the big, new experiment.
As if being a rookie NASCAR Cup Series driver during the 2020 season already wasn’t enough.
NASCAR — not the NBA, not MLB — will follow UFC and become one of the first major American pro sports leagues to return during the coronavirus pandemic. When The Real Heroes 400 begins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at famed Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, a 29-year-old raised in The Woodlands is set to start 35th in a 40-racer field.
“All of us are excited to get back and do what we love to do,” said Poole, who drives the No. 15 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports. “We love to race and compete. Having the opportunity to do something that we love to do is really awesome.”
Poole raced at Daytona, Las Vegas and Phoenix when NASCAR’s 2020 campaign was beginning, finishing in 16th and running all 209 laps in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17. Then the coronavirus began shutting down businesses, schools and live sporting events, filling unemployment lines and battering the economy. When the first lap in Darlington begins, 71 days will have passed since the last NASCAR race.
There won’t be any fans in the stands Sunday. Team rosters will be limited. Drivers’ and crew members’ health will be prioritized, with cloth masks required and prerace temperature checks.
But drivers drive and racers race. Which means NASCAR will have its largest national stage in almost two decades, at a time when MLB players and owners are just beginning return-to-play negotiations, and the NBA appears to be at least a month away from a potential return.
“NASCAR is doing all the things that they need to do to make sure that all the competitors
and all the crew members and everybody are safe,” said Poole, who graduated from The Woodlands Christian Academy. “We have a lot of strict safety precautions that all the teams are going through, and I think it’s going to work out really well.
“I’m just thankful that we can go back and have something a little bit normal happening. It’ll be good for all the fans. And maybe some folks that aren’t fans of the sport yet — I believe there will be a lot of people tuning in to watch us race, being the first live sport back. I just
feel like it’s going to be good for the sport.”
America is trying to reopen. NASCAR needs a lasting positive push.
This week, the sport announced a heavily altered schedule that will return stock-car racing to its Southern roots. North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida and South Carolina are scheduled to host NASCAR races through June 21. The revised calendar features nine Cup events, including the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway during Memorial
Day weekend and the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Wednesday night races are also on the new schedule, with NASCAR centering its coronavirus-affected season around its home base of Charlotte, N.C.
Charlotte is now home for Poole, who drove to the city when he was a teenager and gradually worked his way from the lower ranks of racing to NASCAR’s premier level.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career. Times where I only raced a few times a year and times where I didn’t know if I was going to race,” said Poole, who used to head to San Antonio and Austin on weekends for racing as a kid, after being picked up from school by his father.
Poole adjusted to endless travel in the search for the next race and victory. Now he’ll join pole-sitter Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano at Darlington, adjusting to a Cup race that will be run without fans.
For NASCAR drivers, wearing full-body protective gear is simply part of the job. Normally, so is consistently interacting with loyal fans, who spend race weeks getting an up-close view of their favorite drivers in a way that is unimaginable in the NFL, NBA and MLB.
Sunday at Darlington, it will just be the cars, drivers and essential crew members.
“It is going to be strange not having the fans there,” Poole said. “They bring a lot of energy to the race. It’s just going to be different. I’m going to try to do some behind-the-scenes footage of what it’s like to be there while we’re going through race weekend with no fans and these new protocols in place.”
Everything is different right now. But sports must and will return.
For the first time in a long time, NASCAR will lead the way.
I already know what I’m doing Sunday afternoon: I’m watching a live race.
“There’s only 40 of us in the entire world that get to race in the highest form of motor sports in our country,” Poole said. “For me to just be one of those 40 guys — I’ve worked my entire life since I was 5 years old to have the opportunity to be one of the guys that gets to race on Sunday.”
The Woodlands’ Brennan Poole is ready to resume his rookie NASCAR season