Brennan Poole (No. 44) racing against Kris Wright (No. 5) and APR teammate Parker Retzlaff (No. 4) for track position in the Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo Credit: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — Brennan Poole outlasted the 250-lap melee at Martinsville Speedway, finishing in fourth place in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Marine Corps 250. This achievement marks Alpha Prime Racing’s best finish as an organization.
Alpha Prime Racing was able to salvage a respectable day with all three of their entries with Poole finishing fourth, the No.4 of Parker Retzlaff finishing in 12th, and Brad Perez in the No. 45 coming home 23rd when the dust settled around the 0.5-mile oval.
Poole qualified in the 29th starting spot in Friday’s qualification session as he would be starting from way out back in row 15, alongside the No. 5 Our Motorsports Chevrolet of Kris Wright for the 200-mile race.
Poole quietly moved into the top 20 with just under 10 laps remaining in the first 60-lap stage. He maintained the 19th position as Stage 1 concluded under caution due to contact between Corey Day and Harrison Burton entering Turn 1.
The native of Folsom, California, would start Stage 2 in 19th place, aiming to advance through the field.
Poole shuffled back to 21st as he battled for track position with his APR teammate Retzlaff, who had climbed from the 27th starting spot.
The Xfinity Series veteran continued to hang around the 20th place position as the laps began to wind down for the conclusion of Stage 2.
The third caution of the race flew for Dean Thompson, who got spun around entering Turn 1. Poole found himself inside the top 10 for the first of many times on the day, taking the eighth spot on the restart on Lap 102.
Brennan Poole decisively worked his way around the calamity in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway, claiming his first top 5 and top 10 on the 2025 season. (Photo Credit: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
Poole and Retzlaff fought hard to claim as many stage points as possible with 18 laps to go in the stage. Poole was unable to claim stage points, falling back to 13th when the Stage 2 caution flag was displayed.
Poole would restart in 20th place for the final 130 laps of the race. Little did he know that this marked the beginning of avoiding calamity during the final stage.
As tensions rose among drivers and cars, Poole steadily moved through the top 20, competing within the top 15 during the first half of the final stage.
With 90 laps to go after the caution for Burton and Thomas Annunziata, Poole found himself inside the top 5, going door to door with defending Xfinity Series champion, Justin Allgaier for several laps before getting pushed towards outside the top 10.
With 25 laps remaining, Poole advanced to 10th position and sought more as the race entered the crucial final phase.
Poole narrowly escaped a four-car crash while exiting Turn 2 with 19 laps to go as Sam Mayer gave a significant shove to Christian Eckes, which sent him into his Kaulig Racing teammate, Daniel Dye, resulting in a collision that also involved Kyle Sieg and Nick Sanchez. Poole managed to maneuver past the spinning Eckes but ended up hitting the outside backstretch wall with his No. 44 Chevrolet.
As the final caution of the race came out, sending the event into NASCAR overtime, the 33-year-old driver was ready to roll from eighth place for the last restart.
As the field entered the final lap, Sammy Smith dive-bombed into the back of race leader Taylor Gray entering Turn 3, which resulted in a stack-up on the outside with Allgaier, Mayer, Sheldon Creed, and Austin Hill.
As Hill secured his second victory of the season, Allgaier, Poole, and Mayer battled for the top five positions right to the line. In a thrilling photo finish, Allgaier narrowly edged out Poole for third place, but Poole ultimately claimed the fourth position when all was said and done.
The finish marks Poole’s first top 5 and 1o since 2024 when he achieved both results at Talladega Superspeedway. Poole has qualified for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash program when the series visits Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks, allowing the APR driver to race for $100,000.
It also marks Alpha Prime Racing’s best finish in team history, as Poole claimed the team’s first-ever top 5 last season in the spring at Talladega.
“We just had a really great race car all night.” Said Poole in a post-race interview after his solid finish.
“Frank (Kerr) played the tire strategy just right, we had a little bit better tires than everybody else at the end of the race, and working with my spotter, we made a lot of good decisions, and we kept choosing the bottom lane figuring that those guys were going to keep shoving and shoving up off the bottom, and I was able to fill the holes, but we had top 10 speed all night.
The driver of the No. 44 also quoted about how big this finish is for the Alpha Prime Racing camp, which is still competiting against all odds of the other powerhouse Xfinity Series organizations.
I’m really proud of the effort, our team runs on a quarter of the budget than everybody else, and we don’t have leased engines or simulators, so I’m just really proud of everybody and to come here with this type of speed is just really awesome, and I love short track racing, I love this place, and to get a top 5 is really cool.”
Poole was able to jump up to 17th in the Xfinity Series standings heading into next Saturday’s race at Darlington Raceway.
