With finishes of 26th, 35th, 21st, and 24th in his first four races of the 2012 season, Erik Darnell, driver of the 40 Chevy Impala for TMG – The Motorsports Group, hopes to get his best finish at Texas and set the tone for the team’s inaugural 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series season under the TMG banner.
With seven previous starts at Texas Motor Speedway between the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series, Darnell has a best finish of 9th place in 2006 in the #99 truck, and a 14th place finish in 2010 in the 16 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing.
“I am really looking forward to Texas, I have run good there in the past.” Says Darnell. “It’s a fast place and getting the car set up to work through the tunnel bumps in turns 2 and 4 is the key. Gary and the team have been working hard back at the shop to get the car ready and I am confident we will have a pretty good car to start out with.”
Curtis Key, president of the newly formed TMG, is excited about his new venture which features four race cars with Darnell at the helm.
“Erik is a great driver and we are proud to have him behind the wheel of the #40.” States TMG President, Curtis Key. “We hope that with his talent and the good equipment and people we have behind him we can attract new corporate marketing partnerships to TMG. We are committed to Erik and we are looking forward to a long relationship with him as our primary driver.”
After becoming a co-winner of “Driver X” in 2005, a televised reality series competition held by Roush Racing to find a new development driver, Illinois native Darnell landed a full time ride in the Craftsman Truck Series in the 99 Ford F-150 for Roush, alongside David Ragan who was in the #6 truck. After receiving Rookie of the Year in his first season, Darnell went on to win at Kansas Speedway the following year.
This year, however, brings new hopes and a new team, and Darnell and TMG are prepared and optimistic for a top ten finish this weekend in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
The event will be broadcasted on ESPN on Friday April 13th at 8pm Eastern Time.
You can also follow the TMG team’s weekend progress via twitter updates: @TMG_team40.
TMG PR
