NASCAR Lost David Poole Today

Long time NASCAR journalist David Poole (middle of picture) died today at the age of 50 of a heart attack.

I’m stunned really.

Wow.

David Poole gone.

David Poole was to NASCAR journalism what Dale Earnhardt was to NASCAR Racing. They were both Intimidators in their own rights.

Like Earnhardt, Poole commanded respect and scared the hell out of his peers and like Earnhardt, Poole was taken away from us while still in his prime.

Its kind of ironic that Poole died at the age of 50 like Earnhardt and a day before Earnhardt’s birthday.

When I frist started out in this blogging thing 3 years ago I knew I was doing something good when I looked at my sitemeter and I noticed I was getting a visitor from The Charlotte Observer on a weekly basis.

I can only assume it was David. I never asked him if it was or not - I was scared to really.

I always thought that one day I would be able to meet David in the media centre at a NASCAR event and ask him then if indeed it was he who was visiting my site. I’ll never get that chance now.

One thing that I really appreciated about David though (besides his excellent journalism) is that out of all the so-called ‘big name’ NASCAR journalists out there he and Dustin Long are the only ones who ever replied to my e-mails. I mean, who am I really? And he took time out to reply to my e-mail. That says something about his character.

There is a void in the world of NASCAR journalism right now, one that won’t be filled for a long time to come and especially not by a hack like me. The person to fill this viod will have to be someone that has the respect of the NASCAR community and a love for the sport beyond what most sport journalists have for ‘their’ sports.

Any takers?

My prayers go out to David’s family right now as they have an even greater loss than the NASCAR community does now that David’s gone.