Poole & Alpha Prime Earn Bristol Top 20 ‘For Cliff’

Brennan Poole (left) with members of the Macc Door Systems family and the family of late founder Cliff Bowman at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Daylon Barr Photography)

BRISTOL, Tenn. – As the checkered flag waved on the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway Friday night, Brennan Poole made his presence in the top 20 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series field known once again.

Poole drove his No. 44 For Cliff/Macc Door Systems Chevrolet Camaro for Alpha Prime Racing to a 17th-place finish, marking his 16th top 20 in 26 Xfinity Series races this year and his fourth in his last five starts.

The paint scheme onboard Poole’s Chevrolet was particularly meaningful to the Alpha Prime team, honoring Macc Door Systems founder Cliff Bowman, who passed away Sept. 6 just weeks before his 69th birthday.

Though Poole started 29th, he moved forward steadily all race long and gave a drive Bowman likely would have appreciated, climbing as high as 14th and averaging a top-20 running position as well.

Perhaps most notable, Friday night marked Poole’s best Bristol Xfinity Series finish since his track-best of sixth in 2017 with Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I think I always have high expectations, but you never know until you get in the car and start driving for the team and start working with everybody on what you’re really capable of,” said Poole after being asked about how this year has matched his preseason expectations. “I feel like we have a great race team and a great group of guys. We don’t have all the same tools as everybody else, but we take what we have to work with and make the most out of it.

“Tonight was tough, because we weren’t where we needed to be off the truck for practice and qualifying and we were all disappointed. We worked on it, tried to make it better and kept working on it throughout the race, and things kind of played out the way we needed to for us to stay up front.

“Another top 20, I think that's 16 for us out of [26] starts or something like that, so [that’s] pretty good.”

In two weeks’ time, the NASCAR Xfinity Series heads back to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the second time this season – a place where Poole has come up just short twice, including earlier this year when he finished a season-best fifth and contended for a possible victory in the closing laps.

“I feel like the momentum our team has is really good,” said the Woodlands, Texas, native about his chances to seal the deal this time around.

“Talladega was great ... Hopefully we can do that in October. Put ourselves in a good spot and have a shot to win. Been so close to winning a couple of these [races] now [and] I really just want to win one so bad[ly],” he continued. “Hopefully we can do that. I know my guys will be well prepared and we’ll have a good shot at it.”

First, however, for Poole and the Xfinity Series is Kansas Speedway and the running of the Kansas Lottery 300. Live coverage is slated for Saturday, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.