Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ROBERTS: Why We Loved Poole
Before David Poole, longtime motorsports journalist for the Charlotte Observer, took his talents to the NASCAR beat, he was the Sports TV critic for the Observer...
John Roberts  |  Posted April 29, 2009   Charlotte, NC
John Roberts is the host of NASCAR RaceDay, NASCAR Victory Lane and NASCAR Smarts on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy. David Poole had tact and probably in greater abundance than anyone else at the race track.

But before Poole, longtime motorsports journalist for the Charlotte Observer, took his talents to the NASCAR beat, he was the Sports TV critic for the Observer.

It was the summer of 1995 when I met David through a column he had written. I had just anchored my first sportscast for WBTV in Charlotte and we were the official station of the Carolina Panthers. When the show concluded, we thought we had done fairly well and were actually quite proud of ourselves. However, the one glaring problem was not only had we gotten beaten on the biggest story of the day, we had missed it altogether. After a long hold-out, Kerry Collins had come to terms with the Panthers and signed. Both of the other TV stations in town had the story but we had nothing.

So David’s headline the next day was “The Official Station of the Panthers Officially Misses the First Big Story of the Year” or something along those lines. I immediately grabbed the phone book and started looking for the Observer’s phone number. I was going to tell this terribly awful man that he unfairly ragged us out. But then reality set in.

He was right and had written nothing but the facts. It wasn’t David’s fault we didn’t do our jobs. This guy had slammed my co-workers and me in the local paper but I found myself thanking him the next weekend at the team’s training camp because he challenged us to be better than we were.

Ever since then, David was one of the first guys I looked for when something controversial was going on. We often quoted his take on many subjects on the air.

The media naturally is made up of many outspoken people and many of them reside in the NASCAR media center. But no one hit the nail on the head more times than David Poole. He kept us all honest. Once at a local press conference, a television reporter made a joke about print reporters’ exaggeration of stories, to which David responded, “It’s our job to keep everybody in line. “ And there’s no question, David did his job and did it better than anyone.

It’s going to be very strange and even more difficult to enter the media center at a race track and not see David. But he will always be with us and we were all better for having known and learned from him.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

John Roberts is the host of NASCAR RaceDay, NASCAR Victory Lane and Tradin’ Paint on SPEED. He also hosts and reports from the garage on NASCAR Live and Go or Go Home and has been part of the FOX family since 2001. Roberts graduated from James Madison University and jokingly still considers himself a prospect for a top-rated college basketball team, namely the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

Play the new Super 7 Sweep Fantasy Racing powered by Wind Tunnel
john_roberts's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Roberts

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.