Darnell picks up pace in final AMS practice session

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Making your Sprint Cup Series debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway is already stressful, but for Erik Darnell, his performance in Sunday night's Pep Boys 500 could be construed as a "screen test" of sorts, one that could have a major effect on his future racing career.

Running only a partial Nationwide Series schedule for Roush Fenway Racing in 2009, Darnell suddenly and unexpectedly found himself replacing Bobby Labonte in the No. 96 Ford for seven races, thanks to a late deal involving sponsors Academy Sports and Northern Tool and Equipment. How late? Because he didn't have time to acquire the right credentials, he was held up by security on his way to his own media conference.

In fact, the crew was still busy making final adjustments to Darnell's seat, which was installed after the team announced that the 26-year-old Illinois native would be replacing the 2000 champion in seven of the final 12 races.

"Obviously, I'm very excited to be in this position that I'm in right now," Darnell said Saturday. "It's kind of a little bit unexpected, I guess, it kind of all happened in a hurry, but I feel very fortunate to be in this position."

Darnell used the first of two practices to get acclimated to the car. He made 30 laps, the fastest turned at 167.457 mph, a full 4 miles an hour slower than the rest of the 45 cars entered. He picked up the pace in the final tuneup, lapping the 1.54-mile quad-oval in 172.538 mph, which left him 45th on the leaderboard.

Ryan Newman showed the way in Happy Hour with a lap of 179.866 mph, narrowly edging Mark Martin and Brian Vickers. Martin won the pole back in March, while Vickers finished fifth the last time the circuit visited Atlanta. The rest of the top five included Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon, as a total of nine cars exceeded the 179 mph barrier.

For Darnell, getting any kind of additional seat time this season is a bonus, especially since his 2010 plans are undetermined. The lack of openings at the top level of Roush Fenway Racing -- particularly as the organization prepares to shed one of its five Cup programs -- has halted the pipeline of young talent, leaving Darnell without a clear career path.

"Right now, I don't really know what's gonna happen next year yet," Darnell said. "I didn't have anything lined up on the Nationwide side as of now, that I know of, so, for me, this is my chance to go out and kind of prove myself. Hopefully, we run well."

Like most young drivers, Darnell's ultimate goal is a full-time Sprint Cup ride. And in order to do that, he'll have to prove himself capable of stepping up in class. At the same time, he knows one misstep could permanently damage his chances of getting another shot.

"Hopefully, we have some good finishes that can turn into something for next year," Darnell said. "That's what I hope for and that's what I would I would definitely like to see happen because I do want to make it to the Sprint Cup tour one day.

"Being a young racer, this has always been my dream to make it to this level and this is gonna be my chance to go out there and show what I can do, but as far as plans for next year or anything set in stone, there's nothing there yet. It's all gonna depend on these seven races. Hopefully, they go well and we can turn that into something, but as far as these go, that's all I've got right now."

The key, according to Darnell, is doing exactly what the team expects of him, the No. 1 thing: bring the car home in one piece.

"Realistically, for this weekend I don't think I could put a finishing position or a number on it," Darnell said. "For us, it's gonna be to go out, be solid in practice, make changes to the car to make it faster, qualify well and run all the laps. That's the big goal for this weekend. If you're sitting on jack stands, you're not learning anything, so, for me, it's gonna be going out there and just running all the laps and trying to get a good finish out of this and proving myself."

Adding to Darnell's stress level is the fact that he has limited experience in a Cup chassis. But he understands the challenge before him.

"It's definitely gonna be tough," Darnell said. "There's a lot on my plate, not only for this weekend, but the six races following this. Again, I haven't really tested one of these things very much, but in the little bit of testing that I've done, they're way different than a Nationwide car, they're way different than a truck.

"They're harder to drive. They've got more horsepower, but I almost feel that benefits me as a driver. I don't know why, but for whatever reason a couple years ago when we had more horsepower, I seemed to do better with those things -- when you actually had a little bit of throttle to control the car -- obviously those drive a little better than these do, but it's gonna be tough, there's no question about it, especially being a rookie in this deal and making my first start at Atlanta."

Working in Darnell's favor is his familiarity with Atlanta Motor Speedway. In six previous visits in the Camping World Truck Series, Darnell posted three top-10s, including a third-place effort in 2006.

"Atlanta is a track that I really like," Darnell said. "I've run well here in the trucks in the past. It's gonna be a little bit of a challenge, a learning curve for me. I haven't spent much time in a Cup car before, the COT car, doing testing or anything like that, so it's gonna take a little bit for me to get up to speed, but I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Sharing Nationwide Series seat time with David Ragan in the No. 6 Ford, Darnell earned the pole and finished fourth at Milwaukee, one of his five top-10 finishes in 10 starts. That comes after Darnell finished fourth in the Truck standings in 2008.

"I really feel like the Nationwide Series we've run very competitively over there this year," Darnell said. "I think we ran up front and had a possible shot to win at Darlington. We sat on the pole at Milwaukee. The Nationwide stuff has been going very well and because of that, it kind of gave me my shot to do this.

"I think eventually, they wanted to try and see if I could do it at the Cup level and they wanted to put me in a car and see what I can do, and I guess this was the time to do it. I feel I've kind of proven myself in the lower two series and this is gonna be my shot and this is gonna be my chance to do it. I'm thankful to them for giving me the opportunity to kind of develop in the lower series and, hopefully, this is gonna show that I can do it at the Sprint Cup level and I can do this on Sundays because we've been doing it on Fridays and Saturdays for a while."