Erik Darnell

This article is about the racing driver. For the animator, see Eric Darnell.

Erik Louis Darnell (born December 2, 1982) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He is the grandson of former USAC and NASCAR driver Bay Darnell, who also started three NASCAR races (including one for Holman Moody).^[1] Darnell formerly drove for Roush Fenway Racing, joining the team in 2005 after being a co-winner on the Discovery Channel program Roush Racing: Driver X, along with David Ragan.

Erik Darnell
Darnell at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2008
Born	Erik Louis Darnell (1982-12-02) December 2, 1982 (age 43) Beach Park, Illinois, U.S.
Achievements	2003 Wisconsin Challenge Series Champion
Awards	2006 Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series career
9 races run over 2 years
2011 position	51st
Best finish	47th (2009)
First race	2009 Pep Boys Auto 500 (Atlanta)
Last race	2011 Good Sam RV Insurance 500 (Pocono)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
52 races run over 5 years
2012 position	17th
Best finish	17th (2012)
First race	2008 Corona México 200 (Mexico City)
Last race	2012 Ford EcoBoost 300 (Homestead)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 5 1
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
77 races run over 5 years
2021 position	66th
Best finish	4th (2008)
First race	2004 Black Cat Fireworks 200 (Milwaukee)
Last race	2021 LiftKits4Less.com 200 (Darlington)
First win	2007 O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 (Kansas)
Last win	2008 Cool City Customs 200 (Michigan)
Wins Top tens Poles 2 32 3
Statistics up to date as of December 30, 2021.

Racing career

Early career

Darnell beating Johnny Benson to the line to win at Michigan in 2008

Darnell's 2008 Truck at Michigan

Darnell's 2009 Nationwide car at Milwaukee

Darnell's 2011 Cup car at Pocono in August

Darnell's 2012 Nationwide car at Road America

Darnell began racing at the age of twelve in the River Valley Kart Club. He won the championship in the purple plate class in his second year of competition, later racing Allison Legacy Series cars after go karts. His first year of super late models was at Illiana Motor Speedway, with Erik finishing third in the final standings with one 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]

2004–2012: NASCAR and ARCA

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.

Darnell raced full-time in the Truck Series in 2006. He had twelve top-ten 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 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 planned to compete in 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series races, sharing the car with Cup Series driver David Ragan, and would also run for Rookie of the Year. The first race on his schedule was at Richmond International Raceway where he finished twelfth. Also, Darnell competed in seven of the final eleven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. He ran the car at Atlanta, Loudon, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. Darnell competed in the No. 96 Academy Sports + Outdoors Ford for the Atlanta, Talladega, and Texas races. He alternated the ride with Bobby Labonte.

In 2010, Darnell found himself without a ride for most of the season due to the lack of sponsorship. He continued to stay on at Roush Fenway Racing as a practice-qualifying driver for Carl Edwards at the standalone Nationwide Series races. Darnell did a three race deal to drive Roush's No. 16 Ford in the Nationwide Series. His best finish was fourteenth at Dover and Texas.

In 2011, Darnell returned to the Cup Series, driving for Whitney Motorsports in several races. In 2012, he competed for The Motorsports Group (formerly Key Motorsports) in the Nationwide Series.

2013–present: Post-NASCAR career

Darnell's Super Late Model at La Crosse in 2013

Darnell in victory lane at Dells Raceway Park in 2016

Darnell's Super Late Model at La Crosse in 2018

Darnell didn't race in NASCAR during 2013. He won the Dick Trickle 99 Super Late Model Oktoberfest race at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway in October 2013.^[4] He has made occasional starts in various Midwest series since. Darnell led much of the second half of the 2019 Oktoberfest ARCA Midwest Tour race at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway before finishing third behind Ty Majeski.^[5]

2021: Return to NASCAR

On May 3, 2021, it was revealed through the release of the entry list for the Truck Series race at Darlington that Darnell would drive the No. 45 for Niece Motorsports in that race with sponsorship from his former sponsor at Roush, Northern Tool + Equipment. This would be his first start in NASCAR since 2012 and first in the Truck Series since 2008.^[6]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NSCC	Pts	Ref
2009	Hall of Fame Racing	96	Ford	DAY	CAL	LVS	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	SON	NHA	DAY	CHI	IND	POC	GLN	MCH	BRI	ATL 30	RCH	NHA 30	DOV	KAN 29	CAL	CLT	MAR	TAL 37	TEX 30	PHO 31	HOM 36	47th	472	[7]
2011	Whitney Motorsports	46	Chevy	DAY	PHO	LVS	BRI	CAL	MAR	TEX	TAL	RCH	DAR	DOV	CLT	KAN	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	KEN	NHA 39																		51st	2	[8]
			Ford																				IND DNQ	POC 42	GLN	MCH DNQ	BRI	ATL
	Max Q Motorsports	37	Chevy																										RCH DNQ	CHI	NHA	DOV	KAN	CLT	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM

Nationwide Series

NASCAR Nationwide Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	NNSC	Pts	Ref
2007	Roush Fenway Racing	6	Ford	DAY	CAL	MXC	LVS	ATL	BRI	NSH	TEX	PHO	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN	MLW	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY	IRP QL†	CGV	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	TEX	PHO	HOM	N/A	0	[9]
2008		17		DAY	CAL	LVS	ATL	BRI	NSH	TEX	PHO	MXC 26	TAL	RCH	DAR	CLT	DOV	NSH	KEN																				119th	85	[10]
		60																		MLW QL‡	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY	IRP	CGV	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	DOV	KAN	CLT	MEM	TEX	PHO	HOM
2009		6		DAY	CAL	LVS	BRI	TEX	NSH	PHO	TAL	RCH 12	DAR 4	CLT	DOV	NSH 9	KEN 11	MLW 4	NHA 9	DAY	CHI	GTY 10	IRP 29	IOW 23	GLN	MCH	BRI	CGV 12	ATL	RCH 14	DOV 17	KAN 18	CAL	CLT 34	MEM 31	TEX	PHO	HOM 31	26th	1837	[11]
2010		16		DAY	CAL	LVS	BRI	NSH	PHO	TEX	TAL	RCH	DAR	DOV	CLT	NSH	KEN	ROA	NHA	DAY	CHI	GTY	IRP	IOW	GLN	MCH	BRI	CGV	ATL	RCH 22	DOV 14	KAN	CAL	CLT		TEX 14	PHO	HOM	82nd	339	[12]
		60																																	GTY QL‡
2011	Key Motorsports	42	Chevy	DAY	PHO	LVS	BRI	CAL	TEX	TAL	NSH	RCH	DAR	DOV	IOW	CLT	CHI	MCH	ROA	DAY	KEN	NHA	NSH	IRP	IOW	GLN	CGV	BRI	ATL	RCH	CHI	DOV	KAN	CLT 42	TEX DNQ	PHO	HOM		113th	01	[13]
2012	The Motorsports Group			DAY DNQ																																			17th	558	[14]
		40			PHO 26	LVS 35	BRI 21	CAL 24	TEX 23	RCH 35	TAL 14	DAR 29	IOW 18	CLT 27	DOV 27	MCH 22	ROA 23	KEN 25	DAY 21	NHA 40	CHI 30	IND 38	IOW 27	GLN	CGV 16	BRI 35	ATL 20	RCH 18	CHI 22	KEN 24	DOV 31	CLT 21	KAN 17	TEX 25	PHO 37	HOM 35
† - Qualified for David Ragan · ‡ - Qualified for Carl Edwards

Camping World Truck Series

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCWTC	Pts	Ref
2004	MRD Motorsports	06	Ford	DAY	ATL	MAR	MFD	CLT	DOV	TEX	MEM	MLW 26	KAN	KEN	GTW	MCH	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA	LVS	CAL	TEX	MAR	PHO	DAR	HOM	100th	85	[15]
2006	Roush Racing	99		DAY 6	CAL 11	ATL 8	MAR 11	GTY 31	CLT 10	MFD 13	DOV 25	TEX 35	MCH 12	MLW 27	KAN 26	KEN 9	MEM 2	IRP 10	NSH 12	BRI 18	NHA 9	LVS 17	TAL 19	MAR 3	ATL 3	TEX 9	PHO 10	HOM 3	12th	3136	[16]
2007	Roush Fenway Racing			DAY 12	CAL 13	ATL 24	MAR 18	KAN 1*	CLT 30	MFD 15	DOV 18	TEX 32	MCH 26	MLW 6	MEM 9	KEN 29	IRP 7	NSH 9	BRI 13	GTW 7	NHA 2	LVS 5	TAL 29	MAR 25	ATL 26	TEX 14	PHO 35	HOM 24	12th	2875	[17]
2008				DAY 21	CAL 11	ATL 12	MAR 5	KAN 28	CLT 4	MFD 11	DOV 25	TEX 24	MCH 1	MLW 4	MEM 2	KEN 29	IRP 3	NSH 2	BRI 15	GTW 6	NHA 4	LVS 2*	TAL 12*	MAR 19	ATL 6	TEX 18	PHO 7	HOM 11	4th	3412	[18]
2021	Niece Motorsports	45	Chevy	DAY	DAY	LVS	ATL	BRI	RCH	KAN	DAR 17	COA	CLT	TEX	NSH	POC	KNX	GLN	GTW	DAR	BRI	LVS	TAL	MAR	PHO				66th	20	[19]

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Re/Max Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	ARMC	Pts	Ref
2005	Roulo Brothers Racing	39	Ford	DAY	NSH	SLM	KEN	TOL	LAN	MIL 4	POC	MCH	KAN	KEN	BLN	POC	GTW 5	LER	NSH 8	MCH 20	ISF	TOL	DSF	CHI 32	SLM	TAL 13	38th	980	[20]
2007	Roush Fenway Racing	99		DAY	USA	NSH	SLM	KAN 2	WIN	KEN 1*	TOL	IOW	POC	MCH 1*	BLN	KEN	POC	NSH	ISF	MIL	GTW	DSF	CHI	SLM	TAL	TOL	47th	700	[21]

CARS Super Late Model Tour

(key)

CARS Super Late Model Tour results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	CSLMTC	Pts	Ref
2017	N/A	7D	N/A	CON	DOM	DOM	HCY	HCY	BRI DNQ	AND	ROU	TCM	ROU	HCY	CON	SBO	N/A	0	[22]