Planetrobby and uprising member David Poole dies

Charlotte Observer motorsports writer David Poole died today. Many in the racing world know who he was. He was also a member of Planet Robby, and also joined The Uprising last year . Rest in peace.
He was 50. Here is a classic David Poole clip from a few years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Blues on April 28, 2009 at 3:17pm

R.I.P. Mr. Poole, we'll miss you, enjoy the races from up there.

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Permalink Reply by Miffles on April 28, 2009 at 3:19pm

Rest in peace, David. I always enjoyed reading your pieces (even if I didn't agree sometimes).

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Permalink Reply by Beagle7 on April 28, 2009 at 4:25pm

I was STUNNED when Sirius Speedway came on at 3pm and dropped this heartbreaking news.

Bagley was an absolutely mess... Just very very sad.

The world is a worse place (especially Nascar) without him..

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Permalink Reply by Kathy on April 28, 2009 at 4:31pm

Rest in Peace Mr. Poole.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Williams on April 28, 2009 at 4:46pm

WOW, was I stunned. R.I.P.-David- you made my morning haul to work sometimes enjoyable, you will be missed

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Permalink Reply by Fast Eddie on April 28, 2009 at 5:36pm

So few voices in any sport consider the fan first and David Poole was a FAN first. Your voice will be missed.

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Permalink Reply by TOG on April 28, 2009 at 5:39pm

From NIKAL's post:

Sad News - David Poole: David Poole, NASCAR Writer for Charlotte Observer for the last 13 years, passed away today. David was one the first writers to ever help Jayski.com and myself back in 1997. No word on arrangements. Thoughts go out to David's family.
From the Charlotte Observer/Thatsracin: David Poole, an Observer reporter who became one of country’s leading authorities on NASCAR, died of a heart attack this afternoon. He was 50. Poole had just returned from last week’s race at Talledega, Ala. He was at his Stanfield home when the heart attack occurred. His daughter called 911. Emergency crews rushed him to the hospital in Stanly County, where he was pronounced dead. Poole, a Gastonia native, became the Observer’s NASCAR writer 13 years ago. He hosted "The Morning Drive" show weekday mornings on Sirius NASCAR Radio. He was a four-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association’s George Cunningham Award as the organization's writer of the year. “He was the best in his field, there’s no doubt about that,” Observer editor Rick Thames said this afternoon in announcing Poole’s death to a hushed newsroom. Poole’s final column ran the day he died. In it he called the track at Talledega an “anachronism” after a day of dramatic crashes Sunday. “Talk about guys who own their beat, that’s what David did,” said Observer sports editor Mike Persinger. 4-28-09

Nikal's Quote:

Wow I heard a few minutes of the Morning Drive on my way to work this morning. I really liked David Poole and he will be missed by me. David and I had E-mailed each other in the passed and he even e-mailed me regarding Robby and Dakar and once regarding the Baja 1000 as he wanted to make sure what he was speaking about was correct. .

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Permalink Reply by NIKAL on April 28, 2009 at 5:50pm

David Poole's last article written and posted today on Thatsracin.com

http://www.thatsracin.com/135/story/7980.html

Will it take a death for Talladega to change?
THATSRACIN.COM OPINION
By David Poole - dpoole@charlotteobserver.com
Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2009
Carl Edwards (99) goes airborne
AP

Carl Edwards (99) goes airborne as Ryan Newman (39) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. drive by on the final lap of Aaron's 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., on Sunday, April 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)

Automobile racing, Humpy Wheeler says, is “controlled violence.”

The important word there is controlled.

Strip away everything – the points and counterpoints, the what-ifs and the buts – from the final lap of Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway and there is one question that matters.

Is racing at Talladega out of control?

I say it is, and Carl Edwards' crash Sunday into the catch-fence in the tri-oval of the 2.66-mile track merely reinforced that opinion.

NASCAR has been trying to fix the race cars at Talladega since Bobby Allison's car came as close to going into the grandstands in 1987 as Edwards' Ford did Sunday.

In 22 years, configuration after configuration has failed. Openings in restrictor plates have been larger and smaller, all manner of spoiler sizes and angles and all types of blades and lips and other devices to catch and/or deflect air have been employed.

The result: Cars bunched tightly and running the same speed so that tiny miscues turn into huge crashes. These crashes endanger drivers and tear up race cars and, in the case of Sunday's last-lap incident, injure seven fans in the grandstands who never signed up to get hurt when they bought a ticket for a Sprint Cup race.

There's ample evidence that you can't fix the car. So fix the track. Turn one end into Indianapolis with flat 90-degree turns connected by a short chute. Or do something else. Change the size. Cut the banking. Something. Anything seems better than having fans hurt and seeing a race car coming heart-in-your-throat close to flying into the stands.

“We are taking a look at everything,” Grant Lynch, senior vice president for business operations of International Speedway Corporation, said Monday. Lynch is a former president of the Talladega track who now oversees operations for several tracks in the ISC portfolio.

Well, maybe not everything. By midday Monday, current Talladega track president Rick Humphrey was saying that changing the race track is not an option. NASCAR officials, in a Monday afternoon teleconference, echoed that.

So what happens now?

The fence damaged Sunday will be repaired. Talladega's fence is 14 feet high, 7 feet lower than the fence at Lowe's Motor Speedway, but to be fair the fence at Talladega did the job this time.

Lynch said the speedway would “assess our comfort level” with the configuration of the fencing, with whether it should continue selling tickets for seats in the lower level along the frontstretch.

NASCAR will look at the size of the opening in the restrictor plate and said it also will study how the roof flaps on Edwards' car and the one in which Matt Kenseth flipped in Saturday's Nationwide race functioned in those two crashes.

Initially, though, they pointed out that Edwards' car appeared to be coming back down toward the ground when Ryan Newman's car hit it and propelled it into the fence.

But here's the problem: With the cars bunched up as they are, how likely is it that a car will go up and come down without somebody hitting it?

There are people talking about getting rid of the yellow line that marks out of bounds for passing on the inside at Daytona and Talladega. That's pointless. If there's no line there, the race leader will go to the edge of the pavement – and beyond, if need be – to protect his position.

NASCAR also hinted it might have to be more vigilant in assessing penalties for aggressive driving. You mean like it was Sunday, when it “warned” Brian Vickers not to do again what it had specifically told drivers not to do in the pre-race driver's meeting?

Others want the Talladega start-finish line moved closer to Turn 4. That just moves the wreck, and besides, that might “hurt” the racing, which is apparently all that matters.

“To me it is what it is,” Lynch said. “We have the most exciting racing there is, but there is that element of it that causes concern. At any race track at any time under the right circumstance, you can have an issue.”

That is absolutely correct. The difference, though, is it's news when you don't have it at Talladega.

Two weeks ago, Talladega officials announced they were adding a new item to the track's concession menu. It was a jumbo hot dog, and they called it “The Big One,” naming it after the multi-car wrecks so often seen there. NASCAR's Web site carried a banner advertisement last week reading “Who'll survive The Big One?”

And this weekend, Lowe's Motor Speedway announced a despicable promotion tying the price of bargain tickets for its May races to the number of cars involved in the biggest wreck Sunday at Talladega.

“We have had wrecks like this every time we come to Talladega, ever since the plate got here, and for years it has been celebrated,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Sunday. “The media celebrate it, the networks celebrate it, calling it ‘The Big One,' just trying to attract attention and … bring people's attention to the race. So there's a responsibility with the media and the networks and the sanctioning body itself to come to their senses a little bit and think about the situation.”

The front page of Monday's Charlotte Observer trumpeted Talladega's “wild finish” complete with crash photos.

“Danger is part of racing's appeal, I don't care what anybody says,” said Wheeler, former Lowe's Motor Speedway president. “You don't defang the tiger because people pay to see the sharp teeth. But you can't turn him loose, either.

“The fence did its job this time, but the problem is what happens if it doesn't. You'd have a calamity.”

All I want is for someone to tell me what's acceptable. We apparently established Sunday that seven fans being injured – one spent the night in a hospital with a broken jaw – is OK.

It seems we've decided we can live with that much damage being done to the sport's customers for “good racing.”

How many people have to be listed in “guarded” or “critical” condition before we say that's too much? Is it lead changes? If we have fewer than five fans hurt for every lead change, is that acceptable?

Does somebody have to die before we've decided we don't have control?

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Permalink Reply by BILL MORAN on April 28, 2009 at 9:02pm

Even though I did not agree with DAVID, I had a ton of respect for him speeking his mind and standing behind it, god knows I yelled on the way to work listening to him , but he is like me tell it like you see it. TO EACH THEIR OWN .
GOD SPEED Mr. POOLE. thanks bill moran

p.s if you got some favors through the 7 some luck (i know you'd like that one)

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Permalink Reply by Mario on April 29, 2009 at 5:43pm

I will definately miss Mr. Poole on "The Morning Drive" and his articles. I know exactly what his family is going through as I just lost my dad to a sudden heart attack a week and a half ago. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.