Ganassi: Brennan Poole 'never won a race despite the advantages of the best equipment'

Attorneys for Chip Ganassi Racing are vehemently disputing the claims Brennan Poole is making in his lawsuit vs. the team and his former motorsports agency and said Poole’s tenure with the team ended because he wasn’t good enough.

“CGR regrets that Mr. Poole refuses to accept that his three-year run with CGR and DC Solar came to an end not because of some nefarious plot against him, but because he never won a race despite the advantages of the best equipment in the garage,” attorneys for Chip Ganassi Racing said on Friday in a statement. “CGR will vigorously defend against these frivolous claims, and looks forward to presenting evidence that will set the record straight.”

Poole filed a suit earlier in the week against CGR and Spire alleging that they conspired to move DC Solar to Kyle Larson’s Cup Series team in 2018. The company, which came to CGR with Poole in 2015, had been his Xfinity Series sponsor for three seasons.

Poole, who had eight top-10 finishes in over 80 Xfinity Series races, does not have a ride in NASCAR in 2018. It’s also very debatable that Ganassi has the best equipment in the Xfinity Series garage. If we were ranking teams, it’d be third at best behind Joe Gibbs Racing and JR Motorsports and probably on par with Richard Childress Racing.

The team’s statement says DC Solar had a sponsor agreement for the 2017 season with the team and not Poole. The statement says “DC Solar unilaterally decided it no longer wanted to spend its motorsports sponsorship dollars on a race car driven by Brennan Poole. DC Solar decided to move its sponsorship up to the Monster Energy Cup Series and informed Mr. Poole that its future plans did not include him.”

Poole’s suit notes the departure of Target after the 2017 season as a reason for Ganassi courting DC Solar. Target, a longtime sponsor of the team, got out of motorsports after the 2017 season, leaving a sponsor gap on Larson’s car.

The suit alleges that Cessna, a sponsor of CGR, offered DC Solar the use of a plane if it moved up to the Cup Series.

Poole also alleges that Spire, which allegedly had business relationships with Poole, DC Solar and CGR, didn’t inform him of overtures made by other race teams throughout the 2017 season.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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