Friends of the late Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com writer David Poole and his wife, Katy, have established a college fund for the couple's grandson, Eli Ross.

They held David Poole's funeral Thursday afternoon, and many of us who loved him and argued with him and frustrated him and admired him showed up.

Jim Utter: For 12 years, David Poole and I have covered NASCAR, traveled together and shared too many dinners to count while trading stories and worries about our families, our newspaper and our friends.

I was eager to make my mark when I arrived in Chapel Hill, but I quickly learned that I’d have to settle for being nothing more than “the other David Poole.”

Over thousands of backstretches and checkered flags, David Poole made himself into more than one of the nation’s leading authorities on NASCAR. He became a part of the sport he loved.

There’s no point in making this sound overly sweet: David Poole did not like me.

In his own way, the late David Poole was as much of a success story as the late Dale Earnhardt.

It was my good fortune to have worked closely with David Poole. But it was even better to have been counted among his friends.

Former Observer NASCAR writer David Poole received one more honor on Wednesday.