Somebody has a lot of nerve...

Sprint Cup Series News & Rumors
Darnell replacing Bobby Labonte for 7 races: Yates Racing, announced that former NASCAR Camping World Series Rookie-ofthe-Year and current NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, Erik Darnell will be behind the wheel of the #96 entry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for seven races this season. Darnell will make his Sprint Cup Series debut Labor Day weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the #96 Academy Sports & Outdoors Ford Fusion. He also is slated to pilot the #96 at Loudon, Kansas, Talladega, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. Darnell will carry the familiar colors of Northern Tool + Equipment for the Loudon and Kansas races. Academy Sports & Outdoors will be Darnell's primary sponsor at Atlanta, Talladega and Texas. Bobby Labonte will continue to race the#96 Ford under the Hall of Fame Racing banner with Ask.com and DLP as his primary sponsors at Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville. "This is a move that will be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time," said Bobby Labonte. "Of course, I'm disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I'm behind the wheel for Ask.com, DLP and Hall of Fame Racing."(Yates Racing PR

HEY ANDREW , WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS MOVE
^{????????????????} ME why Darnell

Quote :

UPDATE: Hall of Fame Racing would like to keep Bobby Labonte as its NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and likely will not be affiliated with Yates Racing next year, team co-owner Tom Garfinkel said Monday. The organization signed Ask.com as a sponsor and Bobby Labonte as a driver in January for the 2009 season and then landed a deal with Yates Racing for Yates to field the cars. Seven of the final 12 races were unsponsored, and Yates Racing has opted to put Erik Darnell in the #96 Sprint Cup car instead of Labonte. Garfinkel, in a phone interview, said his organization is still in discussions with Ask.com for next season but doesn't anticipate the Yates Racing relationship to continue. The organization is looking for other teams to partner with and is in discussions with other sponsors as well, Garfinkel said.(SceneDaily)(8-31-2009)

My initial thoughts... somebody has a lot of nerve to pull Bobby out of the car.
Was pretty shocked to see that they're going to pull Bobby from the car. Looks like Darnell & Menard will be the 2010 Yates Racing drivers.

I think they chose Darnell because it's time for him to move up, and they have no where else to put him next year. Braun & Stenhouse will be in the NW cars, so it's only logical to promote Erik. I think he'll do a nice job.

On one hand. Labonte has been going backward for weeks now. Not that it is his fault, as I showed on a chart below, Ford as a whole is down this year compared to last year. I guess we'll see what Darnell has. There was no reason to keep Labonte behind the wheel of an unsponsored car. His value at this point in his career is his name. If he can't draw sponsorship, then bring on Darnell (I guess).

Here is his Wikipedia page bio

Here's his official site

Last year in the trucks:
4 -- Erik Darnell 3412 -313 25 2 1 9 12 474,945
He finished 4th in the points. In 25 starts, he had 2 poles, 1 win, 9 top 5's and 12 top 10's. So he finished in the top 10 half the time he raced.

Last year he had one Nationwide race. He started 14th and ended 26th.

This year he has 10 Nationwide starts with 2 top 5's and 5 top 10's. So again, he finished in the top 10 in half the time he raced.

Honestly, those statistics are worse than what Kvapil had when he joined Yates, but much better than what Gilliland had. Throw in the fact that he is a much younger driver than anyone we have had in the organization in years, and maybe he can grow as a driver as we improve as a race organization.

I think they will keep the 96 on the car for the rest of this season.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

I think they will keep the 96 on the car for the rest of this season.

Ohhhhh I know that . My comment was meant for 2010, if Darnell remains with YATES

I think they will go back to 28. HoF Racing will most likely take the 96 back with them, since that has been their number since they started in NASCAR.

NO MENTION OF TRAVIS KVAPIL BEING IN THE #28

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4434645




"There's an opportunity here, where I had races that we were on hook for, basically trying to find sponsorship for Bobby and put it together," Jones said. "And there's an opportunity with Erik to get it. We'd like to take a look at him, and Ford Racing would, too. So this is an opportunity to help fund [the team], and give Erik a chance to see if he can do his business in Sprint Cup."


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[size=Jones said Yates Racing is working hard on 2010, as well. He said Paul Menard will be back in the No. 98 Ford, and that Yates wants to run two cars. In fact, he said, they'd rather run three, and mentioned Jamie McMurray as a potential driver in a third car. The main issue is dollars to fund it.
"We're still looking for money," Jones said. "This is an opportunity to shake things up, and get some new sponsors on our cars and a different driver in them. This, hopefully, puts us on the map a little bit more.[/size]

I think Travis Kvapil is out for good, unfortunately. He just can't attract sponsors like you need to in order to make it in Cup, especially with a struggling team like Yates Racing.

I think McMurray, Darnell, and Menard would be a good lineup. Hope they can find the sponsors.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

I think Travis Kvapil is out for good, unfortunately. He just can't attract sponsors like you need to in order to make it in Cup, especially with a struggling team like Yates Racing.

I think McMurray, Darnell, and Menard would be a good lineup. Hope they can find the sponsors.

I thought TK was out from the first of this whole 2009 new lineup. I think the Northern Tool will be with Darnell, if Darnell does well in these 7 races. Mernards , we all know thats no problem, Mc Murry, well, do you really think he will come over to YATES. BTW YATES will be a different team next year and a lot better.

I don't think that Jamie has a lot of options. Pretty sure that his choices are a return to Ganassi or Yates. We'll see what he does.

TeamBlueOval wrote:

I don't think that Jamie has a lot of options. Pretty sure that his choices are a return to Ganassi or Yates. We'll see what he does.

Do you think Ganassi would take him back?

Given the current driver market, yes, I think Ganassi would take him.

Does anyone know if Darnell has ever driven a COT????? I see a big problem if he hasn't

I don't think he has. If he has, it would be very limited experience in a test or something.

The trucks are fairly similar to the COTs, though, so his NCWTS experience should help him adjust to the Cup car.

Rickt Craven article The one comment tells it like it use to be.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=rc-preatlanta090309&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I have the highest regard for Robert and Doug Yates. Having worked with them and having been powered by their engines en route to my first Cup win, I can attest they treat team members like family.