CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- David Poole, one of NASCAR's most significant voices as the lead motorsports columnist for the Charlotte Observer, died Tuesday of a heart attack. He was 50.Poole was stricken at his Stanfield home and his daughter called 911, the paper said. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Yasinskas: A true proESPN.com NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas salutes his friend and former co-worker, David Poole. BlogPoole was in the midst of his 13th season covering NASCAR for the Observer, the newspaper at the heart of NASCAR country. He covered last weekend's race at Talladega and, true to his nature, followed the coverage of the last-lap crash involving Carl Edwards with a blog post on the Observer site dissecting the pros and cons of racing at the high-speed superspeedway. Poole called the track an anachronism."Is racing at Talladega out of control?" he wrote. "I say it is, and Carl Edwards' crash Sunday into the catch-fence in the tri-oval of the 2.66-mile track merely reinforced that opinion."Does somebody have to die before we've decided we don't have control?"Poole was a four-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association's writer of the year."He was the best in his field, there's no doubt about that," Observer editor Rick Thames said Tuesday afternoon in announcing Poole's death to his newsroom.He also hosted "The Morning Drive" weekday show on Sirius NASCAR Radio and was the author of several books."The NASCAR community is stunned and saddened by the loss of David Poole," Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "David was as passionate about NASCAR as anyone and had very definitive opinions about the sport. He served the industry, and most importantly the fans, through his reporting and commentary in the Charlotte Observer and Sirius Satellite Radio."Poole was born in Gastonia, N.C., and lived in Stanfield at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife, two sons, daughter, and one grandson.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.