May 11, 2009
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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In this sport that we enjoy so much, there are many people who come and go, but few who leave a permanent mark that affect not only the people inside the garage, but many, many people who watch the sport from outside the fence. And the sad thing is you usually don’t recognize just how far that reach is until it is no longer there.
Those of you who read me on even a semi-regular basis know that I am a huge fan of Sirius NASCAR radio. I listen to it at home, in the car, in the morning, in the evening. Weekdays and weekends. While I listen because it keeps me up to date on what is happening in the world of NASCAR, I also tune in because of the people who bring you that information each and every day. There are drivers, crew chiefs, owners and officials. But it is the hosts -- that make the shows educational AND fun to listen to.
Such a fan am I that I have spent the better part of this year working on the powers that be at Sirius HQ in New York City, to allow me to sit in on one of those shows and share the story about it.
However, fate can sometimes step in and change the best laid plans. And not always in a good way.
On Tuesday, April 28, Mike Bagley and David Poole did their usual four hours of “The Morning Drive”, the show that runs weekdays on Sirius from 7 am to 11 am est. Poole was all up in arms about the outcome of Talladega, and how he was sure someone was going to get killed…fan or driver…unless they tore down the track and rebuilt it.
“David was so upset about the race at Talladega…he’s never been a fan of the racing at Talladega…it isn’t his cup of tea, and he was so-so-so bothered by the fact that a fan got injured and he really loved the race fan. He was the advocate of the fan and he always wanted to see the fan taken care of.” explained Bagley, who is an MRN turn announcer and Poole’s co-host each morning. “He and I had a philosophical difference when it came to racing. As a newspaper journalist he loved to write about the wheel to wheel battle to win, and he loved to watch that kind of racing…but he didn’t like it when people were pushing and shoving trying to get it. Me, on the other hand, I love restrictor plate racing, I love seeing drivers make moves that just take your breath away.
“He was so passionate and so upset about that race that … we had two days of very intense radio, and I remember thinking back that I’ve never had intense morning drive time like that because we were at opposite ends of that argument.
“So it was just so, so ironic that he leaves us on a note doing what he did best, and that’s coming up with an opinion, an unpopular opinion, but not relenting and not backing down from it, and he left this world defending his opinion…and unpopular one, and I think that is what punctuates his legacy…always doing the time and doing the research and take the time to research a matter, write it…talk about it…and when he is hammered about it…defend it, argue it..and in this case, it was argued until the bitter end.”
The pair signed off after another day of heated battle on the radio, and quickly said their farewells on the ISDN line before calling it a day.
Less than 20 minutes later, David Poole died of a heart attack.
As an occasional member of the media, I personally only had passing interaction with David. If anything, he would have known me as “Kim from Virginia”, the way I identify myself when I actually call into one of the Sirius shows during the week. Twice a year in Richmond, I would share the same Media Center with him, and watch him from the side of the room as he interacted with his fellow NASCAR Media regulars, team members, and NASCAR officials. When you walked into the Media Center, you knew if he was there or not, because often, he would be holding court with one person or another. If he wasn’t there, he was out walking the garage. But he wasn’t always out there looking for stories…sometimes; he was just there to chat with the crews and the drivers.
David was especially close to the Richard Childress 31 team, and driver Jeff Burton. At one point a few years ago, David decided he wanted to tell the story of the team and its efforts to make the Chase for the Cup, and write a book about it. The book was never published, but some very solid friendships were formed. On most race weekends, Poole would head over to the 31 team hauler and camp out in the lounge, just chatting with whoever was there. Bagley called it Poole’s “R&R time”. For the 31 team, it was something that you don’t often see in the garage.
Rocky Ryan is Burton’s spotter, and a Friday regular on “The Morning Drive”. Ryan spoke about missing David Poole...“When I got in the team van to come out to the race track (in Richmond), our car chief, who is probably one of the coldest guys of anyone on our race team said, “I’m gonna miss Poole sitting up in the lounge.” And our (car) engineer said “Yeah, me too.” You know, it was a fleeting moment, but for that couple of minutes, we all knew in the van that he was going to be missed, in our own little way, and it is rare for us to do that.”
The day after David died, Bagley was on the air at his usual time, trying to make it through the show alone. It wasn’t easy. People from Mike Helton to over the road truck drivers called in to express their condolences and share their memories of David, good and bad. There were regular callers, like Chris Payne in North Carolina, who called in to express his loss in words, and instead just broke down and cried, unable to say anything.
When I asked Mike about the calls last week in Richmond, he broke down for a moment before being able to explain what they mean to him.
“It is the highest form of flattery a fallen broadcaster can ever get, to have the audience he left behind, whether it be in writing, in the newspaper or written perspective or the spoken perspective as is in radio, for people to take the time to call and take the time to write and take the time to express an opinion about the quality of the man’s work," said Bagley. "When you get calls from the over the road truck driver or (regular callers) Chris or Lanelle, and they are calling and they are crying, I never knew his reach was so far. I never knew so many people cared. I never knew that many people were affected by him.”
Rocky tried to explain why people were affected as much as they have been. “He has touched everyone in such a way that no one else has…he was there for you. He wasn’t just a driver, he wasn’t just a crew member, he wasn’t just a journalist…he was everything to everyone. And he wasn’t just looking for stories when he came and sat in our hauler to talk to all of us. He wasn’t looking for stories. He wasn’t like other reporters looking for what they could report…but Poole would just come in and talk. Not worried about “I don’t have a deadline, I don’t have anything to accomplish, I’m just hanging here.”
Mike added “You lose people in this sport...you lose people in this industry…I don’t recall there ever being a time when we lost a member of the media or a non-driver…take Bill (France) Senior and Bill (France) Junior out of the mix…and a non-driver passes away, that has garnered this much reaction. I talked to (MRN’s) Barney (Hall) the other day and Barney doesn’t remember anything like it. “
Ford Martin is the son of Kevin Harvick’s crew chief Gil Martin. He has been a “cub reporter” on "Tony Stewart Live", and when that show went off the air in December, he was recruited by David Poole to be a regular on TMD. For a 13-year old kid, he is amazingly knowledgeable about the sport, and used his knowledge to soundly defeat Mike and David every week in the TMD race picks competition. It was a point that Poole never let pass unnoticed, and he loved to 'hem and haw' about how this kid could be kicking their butts over who was going to win the race each week.
After David passed, Ford took the time to post an “official statement”.
“I would just like to say that David Poole has been one of my best friends in the NASCAR media," said Ford. "He took the time to add me to "The Morning Drive" after "Tony Stewart Live" went off air, and I know people thought "Why are they adding a 13 year old kid and what can HE do?" But he found a way for me to fit in and I will never forget his generosity.
“I'm sure he is up there, arguing with Jesus about showing His manfeet, or interviewing Bill France about why he never fixed Talladega. Maybe he went before the Pearly Gates and said "I am David Poole. If you don't know me, you're not doing your job."”
And this brings us to the whole Manfeet issue. Oh, what a pet peeve it was of David’s to see men in sandals.
“We were sitting in the lobby of the Wilkes Barre Scranton Airport and we would look at people as they walked by, and they were parading by us in flip flops, and that is where the Manfeet thing really began.” Bagley chuckled. “I remember sitting in Kansas City and we’re waiting to board our plane, and our incoming plane, people were coming off the airplane and we’re sitting there, and we couldn’t see people from the waist down because of the counter, but he would say “see that one, I guarantee he has hooves.” And we sat there and counted people coming off the plane wearing flip flops and we sat there and we just laughed and laughed.”
Poole hated men in flip flops so much, he even had t-shirts made up that said “Stomp Manfeet”, with a picture of flip flops with a slash through them.
“There will come that time in everybody’s day, you will see someone…every single time I see someone in sandals, I will think of David Poole. We can’t break down over that…we have to say “had we not known that man, we would not look at those sandals and burst out laughing,” Rocky added. “When he got to the pearly gates, they issued him sandals, and he immediately said “alright, who’s behind this?” We have to look at those moments as the good moments and not the negative moments.”
When I asked both Mike and Rocky what lesson they took away most from their time with David, their answers were along the same lines, yet different.
“I learned to be fair, and a lot of people find that ironic because in a lot of people’s eyes, David was not fair,” was Mike’s answer. “People would take his opinion and analysis and the intensity of them and automatically conclude he was not a fair person, and he wasn’t even rational at times. One of the biggest lessons I learned from David and I took away from our relationship was he taught me tolerance and he taught me fairness. Before you rush to act or react, take a moment to sit down and analyze the thing and look at the issue from the other side and through that, I was able to say “before I’m in a rush to make a conclusion let me just think this through and let me ask questions of people," and if you stop to think about it, that is how he wrote, he may write a scathing article on a topic, but it was a well educated opinion and a well thought out opinion, and it might not have been popular, but he did the leg work to go with it, and that is why when he argued, he argued with fact and argued with research in his pocket, and that helped me grow not only as a broadcaster, but as a person as well.”
“If I took anything from my friendship with David, it would be to try and be a little bit more vocal, to let people know how you feel, let people know what you think. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong," added Rocky. “You are always under the perception that -- "if I say something wrong people are going to hate me.” Well that is just the exact opposite of what David would do. I’m gonna speak my peace, and when I’m done were still gonna be friends. I have this opinion; you have that opinion, so what? We can still meet in the middle. And that’s what's hard for me, and that’s something I’d like to take with me from knowing him. That you can disagree and still be friends.”
Both lessons are ones well learned, and something that I, too, will think of when I remember David Poole.
There is so much to the person that was David Poole that I will be back tomorrow with a side that not many people saw of David: the soft, big hearted side. The man who spent hours at night trying to find ways to support those less fortunate, and to give the next generation of drivers a chance that they might otherwise never had.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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