Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Wytheville, VA(January 18, 2010) -- With 27 of the 50 states(as shown above on map) recording votes in the UARA-STARS Series Most Popular Driver of the Year Award voting on RACE22.com, the results are in and Brennan Poole has claimed the award in his rookie season.

Poole's supporters actually got a late start on voting as Matt McCall, Brandon McReynolds, Paddy Rodenbeck, Jamey Caudill and Coleman Pressley's supporters had been voting for several hours before Poole began to close the gap on day two. McCall had led the voting early on with McReynolds taking the lead and swapping back and forth with him over the course of the first day, but day two Pressley began to take control. It wasn't until late on the second night and just more than 12 hours that Poole began to get his votes together and make progress.

As the completion of the little over 48-hour vote came to an end, Poole ended up with 31% of the votes and as it was announced at the UARA-STARS Series banquet on Saturday night, Brennan Poole took home the hardware. It was his new roommate, Pressley who finished second with 18% of the votes with Matt McCall finishing third just one vote ahead of Michael Rouse and Paddy Rodenbeck finishing fifth with 8% of the votes.

Certainly, the Rookie of the Year this season in the UARA-STARS Series had gained fans this season and he came to the tour from The Woodlands, Texas with a background in Legends cars and USMTS Modifieds. He's certainly gained some fans through the years, but one of the things that might have most thrust this young driver into the spotlight enough to beat names like McCall, Caudill, McReynolds and Pressley was his Bailey's 300 performance at Martinsville Speedway.

That's where Poole in front of one of the largest crowds for Late Model Stock Car racing all season had put himself in a position to win the race. A rookie coming to Late Model Stock Car racing's grand stage with a chance to win? It was unheard of, but the rookie driver made the most of a great handling car from Jamie Yelton's Fat Head Racing and finished third. It was the best ever finish by any rookie driver in the annual "big money" race, the Daytona 500 of Late Model Stock Car racing.

Poole also began to build fanfare late in the season as he ripped off impressive performances in the UARA-STARS Series second half of the season including a second place finish in the season finale, which came after he blew an engine in practice, missed qualifying and started shotgun on the field. Poole's personality is laid back and he often has a smile on his face even when things don't seem to be going his way, which makes him one of the fan favorites and he showed how much of a fan favorite as he won this award.

RACE22.com would like to congratulate Poole on his UARA-STARS Series Most Popular Driver award as well as his Rookie of the Year award in the UARA-STARS Series, we're sure he'll be a big part of Late Model Stock Car racing in the coming season.