Getty The No. 51 team heads to the starting grid at Talladega Superspeedway.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on May 6-7 with a trip to Kansas Speedway. Rick Ware Racing is using the race weekend to raise money for a Stewart-Haas Racing engineer, DJ VanderLey, who sustained injuries in a micro sprint crash in 2022.
According to a press release, Brennan Poole will be back in the No. 15 Ford Mustang during the weekend at Kansas Speedway. He will have a unique scheme on the stock car, which will have “VDL Strong” logos on the sides and hood.
There will also be a URL leading to a site where racing fans can make donations to help the VanderLey family offset the costs of his care and necessary equipment. This is an effort put together in collaboration with Motor Racing Outreach.
The No. 15 @FordPerformance Mustang will be driven by @brennanpoole at @kansasspeedway this weekend. The car is carrying a “VDL Strong” logo on the hood and link to help injured @NASCAR team member @DJVanderLey, from @StewartHaasRcng. People can donate via…
VanderLey was injured during a mico sprint race in September 2022. He suffered several fractured vertebrae and a spinal cord injury. VanderLey’s family set up GoFundMe campaigns to help with the medical bills, but RWR will try to bolster these efforts during the race weekend at Kansas Speedway.
The primary goal of RWR is to raise the funds necessary to provide the VanderLey family with an FES (functional electrical stimulation) bike from Restorative Therapies. This goal will help “reduce muscle spasms, prevent muscle atrophy, support bone density, burn calories, and increase respiratory, and circulatory health.”
NASCAR Drivers & Teams Showed Support for VanderLey in 2022
GettyJJ Yeley races at Bristol Motor Speedway
The news of VanderLey’s injuries surfaced late in the 2022 NASCAR season. There was information provided on Facebook about the crash and the surgery that he underwent after being transported to the Texas Harris Medical Hospital in Fort Worth.
According to information obtained by Matt Weaver, VanderLey spent 20 days in ICU before being airlifted to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation. He was finally able to return home in January 2023. He is now able to breathe on his own, but he has no muscle control below his mid-chest. The hope is that the FES bike will help those muscles begin to fire again.
Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson, and many other drivers in the national NASCAR series showed their support after the accident by putting special decals on their stock cars. This was fitting considering that VanderLey has friends throughout the industry, and he has worked as an engineer for Herbst, Cole Custer, Chase Briscoe, and Christopher Bell.
“It’s definitely unfortunate,” Briscoe said on September 24, 2022. “I hate that it happened to anybody but [for it] to hit that close to home has definitely been tough, I think, for me. I’ve had friends get hurt in the past running dirt stuff, but DJ’s probably the closest friend I’ve had that has had that happen.”
SHR has made it clear that VandeLey is a part of the organization’s future. He has a job waiting for him once he is ready and able to return to work.
Poole Will Raise Awareness While Gaining Experience
The Texas native will be back in control of the No. 15 Ford Mustang as he makes his second start of the Next Gen era. His first was the race at Dover Motor Speedway where contact from Ross Chastain sent the No. 15 into the outside wall during the first stage.
Poole has limited Cup Series experience at Kansas Speedway. His only starts at the intermediate track took place during the 2020 season as he suited up for 35 of the 36 races in the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro. He finished 30th in the spring and 28th in the fall.
Poole started the year with Premium Motorsports, but he joined Rick Ware Racing early in the season. The reason is that Rick Ware purchased the charter tied to the No. 15. The only race Poole missed took place at Bristol Motor Speedway as JJ Yeley replaced him in the entry.