Darnell on the Hot Seat?

Written by T.C. on Jun 4th, 2008

After a mediocre start to the 2008 Craftsman Truck Series season, word on the street is that Jack Roush is not happy with driver Erik Darnell and his crew chief Matt Puccia. Darnell, driver of the #99 Northern Tool and Equipment Ford, was the 2005 winner of Roush’s “Gong Show” that was made into a reality series called Driver X.

Eight races into the season, Darnell sits 12th in the series point standings and has only two top five and two top ten finishes. He was poised for wins at both Daytona and Charlotte a few weeks ago, but problems late in both races derailed those efforts. The team is also coming off a 25th place finish at Dover last weekend. While not a terrible season to this point, Darnell was expected to contend for the championship in 2008, but he has yet to show he is competition for perenial favorites like Ron Hornaday and Rick Crawford.

At this point last season, Darnell also sat 12th in the standings but the team had earned a win at Kansas Speedway. For the season, his average finish is three spots worse then his average start. Not exactly what crew chief Matt Puccia and the #99 team are looking for. While I don’t believe any sort of change is imminent, the heat is now on Darnell more then ever to improve especially since he is also scheduled for six Nationwide Series starts this year.

Trouble for Lagasse? In a quiet move this week, JTG Racing driver Scott Lagasse’s #20 truck has been withdrawn from this weekend’s Sam’s Town 400 at Texas. I cannot find any sort of press about this anywhere online, including TruckSeries.com, Jayski, JTG’s website, or Lagasse’s website. The team had been struggling so far this season with two DNF’s in eight starts and a best finish of 19th at California. Lagasse, who was a Chip Ganassi Racing development driver last year, was slated to drive for JTG all season with backing from the Nicholson Group. If I hear any more about this, I’ll let you know.

**On a sidenote, I’ve signed up for a Twitter account for those of you who hang out there. I thought it might be another way that our readers can follow what’s going on with us and the blog. You can find my profile at twitter.com/nascarinsider

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