23 Facts About Erik Darnell

Erik Louis Darnell was born on December 2,1982 and is an American professional stock car racing driver.

Erik Darnell is the grandson of former USAC and NASCAR driver Bay Darnell, who started three NASCAR races.

Erik Darnell began racing at the age of 12 in the River Valley Kart Club.

Erik Darnell won the championship in the purple plate class in his second year of competition, later racing Allison Legacy Series cars after go karts.

Erik Darnell beat the best Wisconsin super late model drivers to win the 2003 Wisconsin Challenge Series championship.

Erik Darnell set the super late model track record at Lake Geneva Raceway in 2004.

Erik Darnell drove in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Milwaukee in 2004, finishing 26th.

Erik Darnell drove in several NASCAR touring series and six ARCA races in 2005.

Erik Darnell had twelve top-10 finishes in 25 events, and he was the series' Rookie of the Year.

Erik Darnell continued to drive for the team in 2007, as well as testing the team's Busch Series cars.

Erik Darnell started the 2008 season by capturing the pole position at the Daytona International Speedway.

Erik Darnell won his second career CTS race in June 2008 at Michigan International Speedway by.

For 2009, Erik Darnell planned to compete in 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series races, sharing the car with Cup Series driver David Ragan, and would run for Rookie of the Year.

Also, Erik Darnell competed in seven of the final 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

Erik Darnell ran the car at Atlanta, Loudon, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead.

Erik Darnell competed in the No 96 Academy Sports + Outdoors Ford for the Atlanta, Talladega, and Texas races.

In 2010, Erik Darnell found himself without a ride for most of the season due to the lack of sponsorship.

Erik Darnell continued to stay on at Roush Fenway Racing as a practice-qualifying driver for Carl Edwards at the standalone Nationwide Series races.

Erik Darnell did a 3 race deal to drive Roush's No 16 Ford in the Nationwide Series.

In 2011, Erik Darnell returned to the Cup Series, driving for Whitney Motorsports in several races.

Erik Darnell has made occasional starts in various Midwest series since.

Erik 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.

On May 3,2021, it was revealed through the release of the entry list for the Truck Series race at Darlington that Erik Darnell would drive the No 45 for Niece Motorsports in that race with sponsorship from his former sponsor at Roush, Northern Tool + Equipment.