Randleman, North Carolina native Jason Poole has formed an alliance with Limited Late Model regular Boo Boo Dalton to compete in a handful of races at the end of the 2020 season, starting with this weekend’s feature at Dillon Motor Speedway
Poole is confident that he can be competitive piloting Dalton’s familiar #50 in Dillon’s Challenger division, but he admitted that his goal for the weekend is to defeat his stepbrother Anthony Bennett, who has been the primary on-track rival for him since his childhood.
“You would think that as brothers we would work together and be a force to be reckoned with, but it’s actually been the total opposite since we started racing as kids,” Poole said. “We were always each other’s fiercest competition and that’s why we won so many races growing up, because we tried beating each other and ended up leading the field.”
Poole is the son of former NASCAR driver Herbie Poole, who competed in several races for Ned Jarrett during his career and was originally slated to take over for two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Sam Ard after he suffered a career-ending injury at Rockingham Speedway in 1984.
Along with being responsible for bringing Budweiser into NASCAR, Herbie’s contributions to the sport included eight Late Model championships, one Modified title, 246 Late Model wins and 168 poles, which he accumulated at tracks like Ace Speedway, Orange County Speedway, Caraway Speedway and many more.
Poole and Bennett acquired substantial knowledge about racing from Herbie and initially worked together during the early stages of their development, but the two decided to part ways in the early 2010s so they could focus on building their own programs.
Although Poole initially had many chances to best Bennett at short tracks along the East Coast, he said that circumstances have prevented him from racing alongside his stepbrother during the past few years, but an off weekend for Poole on Aug. 29 created an opportunity for the two to rekindle their rivalry.
After watching Bennett put together a strong second-place performance in the Challenger feature at Dillon that day, Poole talked with the race-winner in Dalton about how he believed he could beat Bennett, which resulted in Poole piloting the #50 for him this weekend.
“I’ve been friends with Boo Boo ever since he started racing cars back in 2009,” Poole said. “Jason York and I helped him get started and we formed a close relationship with Boo Boo and his family. We got to talking and I said that if I had a car, I could compete with [Bennett] and he told me to just drive his.”
Once Poole was able to finalize a three-race deal with Dalton to drive his Challenger, he contacted Bennett about the news, who then told Poole that he would be running at Dillon on Sept. 12 during Poole’s first race with his new ride.
Poole has only competed in one race so far during the 2020 season and has never raced at Dillon in his career, but he intends to learn as much about the facility as possible by testing all day on Friday afternoon with Dalton as his driver coach.
“I’ve never ran Boo Boo’s setup, and I’ve never ran his car,” Poole said. “It’s completely different than what I’m used to, but I know he’s got a great setup and good people working for him. Boo Boo wins everywhere he goes, but I’m basically using Friday to get use to the car and how it feels.”
As far as defeating his stepbrother goes, Poole said that he has already talked with Bennett on several occasions about what to expect at Dillon on Saturday, with both of them agreeing on doing whatever it takes to outrun the other and take home the checkered flag at the end of the evening.
“I’m definitely going to have to get up on the wheel, because [the race on Aug. 29] was about the best I’ve seen my brother drive,” Poole said. “He always tells everybody that he runs his best races when I’m there with him because I always tell him what he needs to do. He’s got a little more experience with the track than I do, but I told him that I would wreck my mama to win this race.”
The feature races at Dillon on Saturday night are scheduled to get underway at approximately 5 p.m.
