Erik Darnell (born December 2, 1982 in Beach Park, Illinois) is an American stock car racing driver, currently driving the #6 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He is the grandson of former USAC and NASCAR driver Bay Darnell, who also started three NASCAR races for Holman Moody. [1] Darnell joined Roush Fenway in 2005 after being a co-winner on the Discovery Channel program Roush Racing: Driver X, along with David Ragan.
Pre-NASCAR career
Erik began racing at the age of 12 in the River Vally Kart Club. He won the championship in the purple plate class in his second year of competition, later racing Allison Legacy cars after go karts. His first year of super late models was at Illiana Motor Speedway, with Erik finishing 3rd in the final standings with 1 win. Erik beat the best Wisconsin super late model drivers to win the 2003 Wisconsin Challenge Series championship. At that time his five wins were the most in the series' history. [2] He set the super late model track record at Lake Geneva Raceway in 2004.[3]
Move to national driver
Darnell drove in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Milwaukee in 2004, finishing 26th. He also raced in numerous NASCAR touring series races.
Darnell drove in several NASCAR touring series and six ARCA races in 2005.
NASCAR career
Darnell raced full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series (CTS) in 2006. He had twelve Top-10 finishes in 25 events, and he was the series' Rookie of the Year. He continued to drive for the team in 2007, as well as testing the team's Busch Series cars. On April 28, 2007 Darnell won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway for his first Craftsman Truck Series win.
Darnell started the 2008 season by capturing the pole position at the Daytona International Speedway. He won his second career CTS race in June 2008 at Michigan International Speedway by .005 of a second over Johnny Benson.
For 2009, Darnell will compete in 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series races, sharing the car with Cup Series driver David Ragan. Darnell will be running for Rookie of the Year. Darnell ran his first of 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway where he finished 12th. Also, Darnell will compete in seven of the final 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He will run the car at Atlanta, Loudon, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. Darnell will compete in the #96 Academy Sports + Outdoors Ford for the Atlanta, Talladega, and Texas races. Darnell is schedule to run the Northern Tool + Equipment Ford at Loudon and Kansas. So far, the Phoenix and Homestead races are unsponsored. Bobby Labonte will return to the car for the other four races.
References
- ↑ Bay Darnell's NASCAR driver statistics at racing-reference.info, Retrieved March 8, 2007
- ↑ May 21, 2006; "Haseleu goes for second WIR spring win"; The Post-Crescent,
- ↑ Lake Geneva Raceway Checkered Flag Final Season (2006)