Brennan Poole is ready to tackle the streets of Chicago for The Loop 121

Over the last few weeks, teams have been preparing for the upcoming Chicago Street Course Race, Brennan Poole and JD Motorsports included. The NASCAR Xfinity Series is going to kick off the race weekend in the Windy City and Poole is ready to go in his No. 6 Van Der Hagen Chevy.

This Chicago race is going to challenge drivers and teams like no other. There has never been an event like this in NASCAR Cup Series or Xfinity Series history. I spoke with Brennan Poole ahead of the race weekend. We talked about his sponsor, his prep, and more.

With a new sponsor, based out of Chicago, it’s a local affair for Poole and his No. 6 team.

“Yeah I think for me, one, I’m really excited about having Van Der Hagen on board because they are a Chicago-based company and this is like right in their backyard,” Poole said during our discussion. “So it’s going to be fun having so many guests and so many people there along with us for this journey this weekend. … I think it’s going to be something else running through the streets and seeing the highrises and just all that. What a really neat experience for all of us as drivers to have that.”

There is a lot that Poole has done in his racing career. He’s won races, he’s competed in the Cup Series full-time, and he’s still only 32 years old. Racing on the streets of Chicago is another accolade that the driver will be able to list among his own.

Drivers have had a big focus on simulation time and even hopped on iRacing for this event. Just understanding how the course is laid out and what you can and can’t do will help these drivers out a lot.

Poole has been getting as much time as he can on the virtual course.

Brennan Poole hopes to have Chicago figured out

With his experience in NASCAR, Brennan Poole is hoping that his work over the last few weeks pays off. With limited simulator time to go around, Poole was able to get in some runs with Chevy.

It is important that these drivers understand the layout of the course. Then they can focus on everything else they need to be successful.

“I’ve had a good relationship with Chevrolet for a lot of my career so I was fortunate to get some time in the simulator, actually last week, and just get to feel the car out and feel where we’re at and run the track,” Poole explained. “Of course, I have a little setup as well on iRacing so I’ve been doing that also. Just making sure you have the track memorized.”

What Brennan Poole and his team have figured out, for now, is how the track feels. The simulator does a pretty good job of reenacting the terrain on the track. But those bumps and corners will likely feel a lot harder on Saturday for Poole.

“So, we know it’s going to be worn out, gonna be hard to get traction, tight corners, lot of right-handers, so we’re just trying to set our cars up for that. We know it’s going to be bumpy and rough, we’ve learned that from the simulator and some stuff like that. So big focus on ride quality which is something that our team has struggled with this year. We put a lot of effort into that and making sure we’re going to be good in the hard braking zones and those types of things that equate to lap time. A lot of effort that’s gone into that and a lot of the Chevrolet teams have been talking.”

Now all Brennan Poole and his team have to do is compete. So, all of that hard work and prep will be put to the test. Poole and JD Motorsports are hoping to build some momentum after a stretch of successful racing.