NASCAR Cup Series

Dartfish program helped Brennan Poole hone his skills behind the wheel

Published May. 22, 2015 11:15 a.m. ET

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HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi driver Brennan Poole has been making a name for himself this year in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, but the 24-year-old has worked hard to get where he is today.

Between rides in the ARCA Racing Series and the XFINITY Series, Poole took on a full-time job to pay the bills and keep food on the table. However, that job also helped hone his skills behind the wheel of a race car.

Poole worked for a company hired by Richard Childress Racing to provide live Dartfish video footage for the team to use throughout race weekends in the Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series.

Dartfish is a program utilized by teams in which video of one driver's lap is overlaid on top of another driver's lap.

The footage allows drivers and teams to see where they are either getting beat or gaining an advantage over the competition. By studying the footage, drivers can adjust their driving line, entry and exit of the corner and more.

During his time with the company, Poole was tapped to record the video footage from the roof during practices and qualifying runs.

While Poole had a job to do, he constantly kept his dreams of making it to the highest ranks of NASCAR competition in the back of his head.

Taking advantage of the role, he studied hours of the video footage and tried to learn all he could from some of NASCAR's best drivers.

"Just being able to watch the film and see what kind of lines guys were taking around the track and see where they were getting beat at, where they were beating other guys at, and putting that in my brain really helped me when I went back to those places to race," Poole told FOXSports.com. "Just being able to carry that information over into the car when I got to the tracks, it just clicked."

In addition to studying other drivers' lines around the track, Poole also filmed green flag pit stops and was able to watch how various competitors were getting on and off pit road under green flag conditions.

The up-and-coming driver first encountered the Dartfish program in 2011 while running in the ARCA Racing Series for Venturini Motorsports.

When Poole earned his final ARCA victory at Kentucky in 2014, he also took John Boyd, owner of the Dartfish company, to Victory Lane. Not only did Boyd employee Poole, he also carried tires for Venturini Motorsports.

Sitting inside the Chip Ganassi Racing shop in Concord, North Carolina, Poole demonstrated an example of the Dartfish program with video comparing his lap to that of Chris Buescher's from last weekend's race at Iowa Speedway.

As the video overlaid the two laps, Poole detailed where he was getting beat through the corners and described what he could do to close that gap.

While the majority of Sprint Cup teams have the ability to view the Dartfish program almost instantaneously on a tablet in the garage, most XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series teams that use the program often have to wait until practice is complete before viewing the footage.

By viewing the Dartfish video, drivers are able to help the crew make adjustment on the cars that might be otherwise difficult to describe.

"As a rookie, when I'm trying to learn stuff and learn what I want out of the car, and I don't necessarily know what's right and what's wrong yet because I'm still learning the car and I'm going to places I've never been before, it helps you to break down what your car is doing much faster," he said.

While many of the younger drivers have used iRacing or other simulations to prepare for themselves, Poole said those programs are not as beneficial as Dartfish. Poole compared the practice to developing muscle memory, but mental instead.

"I'm not a big fan of simulators because they can't give you the feel like you're driving a real car," he said. "A lot of people have built some really cool stuff, but they can't get the cars to feel that edge of control and out of control. With Dartfish, it's not a simulator -- you're not driving -- but it helps you mentally."

In addition, Poole believes Dartfish is a key to making adjustments and helping drivers improve throughout a race weekend as well.

"Dartfish really helps you when you're there at the track to determine the line you need to run, what the fast guys are doing and how they're beating me, where I am beating them," he said. "It also helps crew chiefs and engineers, too. I may say that I'm doing something because I feel like I'm doing something, but Dartfish shows that I am not. They're trying to adjust the car to what I say, but Dartfish is always the telltale, proving, 'No, you're not doing that.'"

By eliminating excuses, Poole says the Dartfish program makes the team work together better, leads to better decisions and ultimately makes the driver better.

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