Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Easley, SC(September 28, 2010) -- Coming into the 15th stop of the UARA-STARS Series season at Greenville Pickens Speedway only two real questions remained. First, could anyone slow down Brennan Poole's hot streak and second, would Coleman Pressley stay out of trouble and help himself secure up the points championship before the season finale in two weeks at Rockingham.

Both of these questions would certainly be answered, but Poole was out to answer the question about his hot streak himself as he posted the fastest practice time in every practice session. Poole wasn't just a little better than the competition, he was smoking them by nearly two-tenths of a second on every time sheet and when it came time to qualify even a malfunctioning timing system couldn't keep the young driver off the pole.

In the first practice session it was Poole and Jeremy Burns, who recently picked up the biggest win of his career in the NASCAR Sanctioned, SH Carter 125 back on Labor Day, a $10,000 payout, who would set themselves apart from the competition. In the second practice session it was again Poole atop the standings, but with Burns sitting out final practice, another local, Randy Porter and UARA regular, Lee Tissot were both flexing some muscle with some fast times on the sheet.

Once it was time for qualifying, Poole, who went out early laid down a fast time of 20.708, the first time under the 21 second bracket of the day and fast enough to put the young Texas native on the pole for the 150-lap race. However Poole wasn't alone in the 20 second bracket as the next eight drivers posted times under 21 seconds including outside pole sitter, Kyle Grissom, who was entering his first UARA race since parting ways with crew chief, Nick Hutchins. Grissom was out to prove that no matter who the crew chief was for him, he could get the job done on the track.

After an abbreviated Autograph Session, that drew many of the people in the stands down to seek autographs from the drivers, it was time to strap in and get this show on the road. With weather threatening to postpone the race, the start of the race was hurried and soon the UARA-STARS Series 15th race of 16 this season was underway. With Poole on the pole, many thought that the young driver would jump out front and take off like he has in so many other races this season, but that was not to be as Grissom asserted himself as the early favorite.

Grissom took the lead from the start of the race and quickly Burns also made his way by Poole as it seemed as if the season long dominator, might not have the car to beat. Burns then went after Grissom for the lead and took that position away on lap 13 and looked to have just as good of a car as he did earlier in the month, when he jumped out in front of the big SH Carter 125 and never looked back. While Burns was out in front, Poole was trying to make his way to second, when a brush with the wall changed his cars handling. The young driver brushed the wall trying to avoid making contact with Grissom and knocked the toe out, making his car not handle like it had before.

It wasn't long before the second question looming would be answered as points leader, Coleman Pressley's car began to sound sick as if it was down a cylinder. Pressley would begin to fade as they tried to diagnose the problem with no aid of a caution to help them take a peek under the hood. Another driver starting to show signs of a struggle was Clint King, whose brakes were glowing and showing that he wasn't handling the way he needed to and had dropped from his fourth place starting position to sixth already.

King's problem's weren't going away and on lap 90 his problems brought out the caution as his car broke a sway bar mount and it eventually sent him into the wall about the same time that Garrett Campbell, who was running the high line, got loose up top to bring out the caution. The caution was a huge break for Pressley, who was hoping he only had a loose spark plug wire or something simple, but much to the disappointment of Pressley and his crew, they found that the problems were internal.

After dropping some air pressures on Pressley's car, the young driver took back to the track frustrated at how his night was going and he began pushing the ailing car for all it worth. Back under green he found himself moving up as although he didn't have the power he needed on the straightaways, he was able to flat foot the car through the corners and gain track position on some of the slower more ill handling race cars. At the lap 90 caution, only nine cars remained on the lead lap and as the race went green to the finish from here even more would find themselves going a lap down as Burns and Poole set a torrid pace out front.

Burns appeared to have the car to beat as he worked through lap traffic only allowing Poole to get close to his rear bumper as they closed down to less than 20 laps to go. Lapped traffic was proving to be a problem as Burns had a tough time lapping several cars including Matt Kurzejewski and Julia Dawson, but it was Dawson, who would prove to be the toughest to pass. As they worked down inside 15-laps to go Dawson trying desperately to stay out of the way, but way too far off the pace, moved down as Burns got under her and ran the leader into the wall.

This would hand the lead to Poole, but this battle was far from over as Burns was digging to get back to his bumper, obviously rattled from getting run into the wall by a much slower car. Burns gets back to the rear bumper of Poole and makes contact moving him up the track and taking back over the top spot, but with several laps still remaining, would Poole be able to get back to his bumper? Poole was digging for every inch of track as his handling issues from knocking the toe out was killing him through the turns, but as the leader get three to go there's some serious lapped traffic ahead of them.

Ahead of Burns and Poole was the fifth and sixth place cars of Grissom and Ronnie Bassett, Jr., both of which were fighting to stay on the lead lap and as the white flag flew, the leaders caught this duo. As the leaders dive into turn one, Burns has to slow up for Bassett, who's trying to get by Grissom for fifth and as he slows, Poole makes contact with his rear bumper and gets the youngster sideways just enough to drive by him on the outside. Burns tries to save the car and over corrects it, nearly taking Poole, to his outside out with him as he spins to the top of the race track.

Poole drives on to take the checkered flag, but this race still isn't over as Burns nearly turns down into Poole as he comes by on the cool down lap. Many thought Poole would be removed from his finishing position due to a rule in the UARA-STARS Series rule book that prohibits contact on the final lap resulting in gaining a position. Last fall at Dillon Motor Speedway, we saw first hand this rule enforced as Matt McCall gave Jamey Caudill a shot in the bumper and turned the leader around, then was stripped of the win after climbing out in victory lane.

Apparently, the UARA-STARS Series officials saw this one differently as Poole remained in victory lane and celebrated with his team as a rain of boo's and profanity came from the local crowd, who wanted to see their local driver win the race. Poole in fine fashion celebrated with his team and even gave a Kyle Busch-like bow to the crowd for good measure as they screamed at him. Poole's celebration was short lived however as Burns pulled his car down pit road and made a bee-line toward Poole's car in victory lane. Burns, another member of his team, Poole, team owner, Jamie Yelton and spotter, Jerry Dickerson conversed, but never came to blows.

Once it was over, Burns walked away respectfully, never bad mouthed Poole and showed maturity in a situation, where it would have been easy not to. Poole went on to take victory lane photos with his crew and family and put the last lap incident in his rear view mirror as he celebrated making history at Greenville Pickens Speedway. Poole became the first UARA-STARS Series driver to defeat the locals in the fourth ever UARA race on the half-mile track, he made it three UARA wins in a row and won his series leading sixth UARA-STARS Series race this season, the most by any driver in the nine year history of the series.

There were two questions coming into the race, Poole answered the first with a resounding no while Pressley suffered the fate of engine problems that helped Poole tighten up the points race heading into the season finale. When the teams were all packing up and heading home, many of them and the fans had more questions like ... What happened to the last lap contact rule? Can anyone stop Brennan Poole? Can Coleman Pressley hang on in the season finale at Rockingham to win the championship?

Plus, there's more questions heading into Rockingham like ... Can Lee Tissot win at Rockingham to keep Mitch West's win streak going? Can Clint King overcome all his bad luck to get back on track at Rockingham? Can Brandon McReynolds win at Rockingham again?

So many question ... so little time ... I guess All of these questions will be answered in two weeks at Rockingham Speedway for the UARA-STARS Series season finale.

UARA/Greenville Results:
1 -- 5 -- Brennan Poole -- 150
2 -- 36 -- Anthony Anders -- 150
3 -- 01 -- Blair Addis -- 150
4 -- 32 -- Kyle Grissom -- 150
5 -- 04 -- Ronnie Bassett -- 150
6 -- 81 -- Jeremy Burns -- 149
7 -- 27 -- Lee Tissot -- 149
8 -- 17 -- Josh Brock -- 149
9 -- 11 -- Robert Johnson -- 149
10 -- 59 -- Coleman Pressley -- 148
11 -- 48 -- Scott Turlington -- 148
12 -- 8 -- Justin Sorrow -- 148
13 -- 10 -- Matt Kurzejewski -- 147
14 -- 03 -- Randy Hawkins -- 146
15 -- 12 -- Garrett Campbell -- 136
16 -- 1 -- Julia Dawson -- 132
17 -- 3 -- Randy Porter -- 123
18 -- 07 -- Clint King -- 89
19 -- 0 -- Scott Bishop -- 87
20 -- 33 -- Trey Gibson -- 84
21 -- 99 -- Richard Boswell II -- 81
22 -- 80 -- Toby Porter -- 73
23 -- 60 -- R.A. Brown -- 29
24 -- 18 -- Tyler English -- 16
25 -- 74 -- Dennis Southerland -- 3