An Interview with David Poole of The Morning Drive

The other day I was enjoying listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio, and specifically, I was listening to NASCAR channel 128, The Morning Drive, with Marty Snider and David Poole. I enjoy their banter, their opinions, and their expertise. I particularly enjoy David Poole’s perspective on all things NASCAR. I wondered who he is and what he’s about. After a few emails and a couple of phone calls, he graciously granted my request to spend a little time with me and I had a candid conversation with Mr. David Poole.

David Poole is one of the most widely-read and well-respected journalists in the sport of NASCAR. He has covered NASCAR for The Charlotte (NC) Observer for 10 seasons. He’s a regular contributor to ThatsRacin.com. He co-hosts Sirius Satellite’s “The Morning Drive” on Sirius NASCAR channel 128. We hear him every day interacting with his co-host, (Marty Snider), the show’s listener’s and dispensing opinions, wisdom & postulates in regards to the latest news and events that occur in and around NASCAR.

David got the bug to go into reporting when he was 12 when he had attended a basketball game. The next day when he saw the write up in the newspaper about the game, he thought he could do a better job. Before long, Poole was doing high school reports for that paper. He worked a news internship there while in college at North Carolina and, after a brief stop in Norfolk, Va., after graduating he returned to Gastonia and eventually became the paper’s sports editor, covering everything from junior high girls’ basketball to ACC basketball. (The paper referred to is the Gaston Gazette, which back when David Poole worked there, was called the Gastonia Gazette.)

David moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 1989, but returned to North Carolina early the next year to work for the Observer on the sports copy desk. He also wrote a column about sports on television and the radio.

In November of 1996, long-time NASCAR beat writer Tom Higgins retired from the Observer. As David put it, the paper got a pile of resumes, but that season Charlotte’s new NFL team kept the folks running the sports department quite busy.

As David recalled: “The day after the 1997 NFC Championship game between the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers, they called and asked me if I could go on the first day of the annual media tour.” The tour was flying to Texas for a look at the new track still being built there. He wound up doing the rest of the tour that week, and then was asked if he wanted to be the NASCAR beat writer. (I guess they liked his work!)

His first race was the 1997 Daytona 500. David recalled a press gathering when Dale Earnhardt asked who’d be taking over for Higgins? When he found David, Earnhardt tells him, “I’ll talk to you later.” (No stress on your first gig, huh?)

Since that first race, David has won three George Cunningham awards* and several Associated Press Sports Editor awards. (*George Cunningham award is given each year to the top writer in the National Motorsports Press Association.)

When Sirius was putting together it’s NASCAR lineup of shows, David inquired with some folks he knew and they found themselves setting up the deal for The Morning Drive.

Their premise for the show is just a couple of guys talking about NASCAR. The show is so real that they don’t hide the fact that David is transmitting from his home studio by ISDN during the week. (Yet, their banter is so well balanced, that you wouldn’t know they’re communicating via text messages or IM’s!) The show is a collaborative effort between the staff, the hosts and the listeners. As the show comes up, producer Paul Pabst tosses outlines for the day. Most days they try to establish a couple of topics for the listeners to deal with, but as the show develops through the morning, David notes that the fans sometimes call in with great perspectives and can change the direction of the show or events can overtake any intention.

Generally, Mondays and Tuesdays cover topics from the previous weekend’s race. Wednesday they put the previous weekend to bed and start looking ahead to the upcoming weekend. They usually have guest appearances on Wednesday because no one is usually traveling on that day. By Thursday, they start to look at the news for the upcoming race and Friday they cover the upcoming race.

I asked David about his personal perspectives about his job, and his final product and David’s premise is that he wants to be first with his reporting, but above all else, he would rather be correct than first with the information he delivers because what he delivers can impact other people and himself.

These days it’s a fine balancing act because of the greater urgency with the presence of the internet and instantaneous information availability. There are no more deadlines, as news is more immediate. In his earlier years, he had until 5pm to put a story out but today, at most, David has about 2 hours. And in those 2 hours, you have to be cognizant of reasonable, responsible reporting. He sees radio, internet blogs, newspapers and websites as delivery systems and his product, is the information. I asked him if it was hard to draw the line when he has to report on issues concerning people he has become close to & how he deals with it. He says “You have to figure out where the lines are, in getting too close to people and try to keep your distance to be able to create credible reports, because if you do tend to hit it off with someone, it’d definitely be harder to write about that person.” He also finds that if it’s too easy to pick a side on a topic he re-examines his perspective. He does find the Sirius Satellite radio program a good extension of his writing and every now and then, the show will jog his memory about an issue that he can expound on in his blog.

With all the work he does for the Charlotte Observer, ThatsRacin dot com, his blog, Life in the Turn Lane at (http://turn-lane.blogspot.com/) and his radio program, it puts a premium on his time management as he finds himself on the road about 150 days out of the year which doesn’t leave him much quality home time, hence the necessity for excellent time management skills.

When I listen to The Morning Drive, you’ll hear the team work between the 2 hosts, and even though it sounds like Marty gets under David’s skin, David says that Marty has different perspectives that bring different angles to the different subject matters they deal with, hence, they compliment each other, to a degree.

Though David deals with the issues of NASCAR as they come up on The Morning Drive, believe it or not, he’s more of a plotter who would like to map out what he needs to do. For example, if it were up to him and his plotting abilities, he would plot his way into the dream job that would let David cover the major sporting events each year like the Daytona 500, the NCAA final 4, the Masters Golf Tournament, the Bristol races, etc.

David Poole has incredible insight into the business of NASCAR and sports overall as he has been able to cover the subject of his choice, throughout his life. That’s a blessed career for one to have and that is definitely a gift. After taking the time from his day to chat with me, I found him to be as real on the phone as he is on the air. What you hear, is what you get. David Poole.

After our conversation, we started to talk about the real issues that matter. We both watch 24 starring Keifer Sutherland on Fox and we want those cell phones that Jack Bauer uses during the show. His batteries last all day long (Are they energizers?) and he can use his phone inside solid concrete bunkers several floors underground!! I told him how exasperated I was to see Audrey alive, and David thinks we’ll see Kim Bauer again too this season!

You can hear The Morning Drive, Weekdays 7 am - 11 am ET on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, Channel 128.

by Bruce E. Simmons
May 15, 2007

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