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Northern Tool + Equipment Team Ready To Put An End To Early Season Misfortunes

Thursday May 8, 2008

 

CONCORD, N.C. (May 8, 2008) – The 2008 season started out with a bang
for Erik Darnell and the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford when they
captured the pole at Daytona back in February. It ended the following
day with Darnell involved in a wreck after leading 45 laps, finishing in
21st place. Since Daytona, Darnell has managed only one top-10 finish
(Martinsville) and currently sits 13th in the overall standing after
five races. But with seven consecutive races coming up beginning next
week in Charlotte, Darnell hopes to turn around his early season
misfortunes.

“It has been very frustrating with the way things have gone for us
the first part of the season. To know you have a truck that is good
enough to win each week and to have the disappointing finishes we’ve
had thus far is upsetting. I’m hoping Charlotte is the place where our
luck begins to change,” said Darnell.

Darnell knows for the team to get moving in the right direction they
need to find some momentum, something they’ve been missing so far this
season. He admits though it has been difficult to get anything going
because of the way the race schedule is setup during the early part of
the season. “It’s hard to put any momentum together when you’ve
only raced five times in the last 11 weeks,” said Darnell.

The driver of the No. 99 Ford F-150 isn’t the only one with early
season frustrations. Crew chief Matt Puccia believes his team has had a
top-five truck or better in every race this season, but misfortunes on
the track ended with several poor finishes. “We qualified first at
Daytona, had a top-three truck at Atlanta, a top-five truck at Kansas
and finished each of those races in the back of the pack. It’s those
kinds of races that upset you the most,” said Puccia.

He believes though the team can rebound from its early season
misfortunes and will be prepared for the stretch run. “We have done
quite a bit of track and wind tunnel testing over the last few weeks.
The truck performed very well during those tests and I feel pretty
confident heading into the next several races,” added Puccia.

Even though the No. 99 team wishes they were in a better spot in the
standings after five races, they know there is still a lot of racing
left in the young season. When they look back at 2008, the team can
hopefully point to those seven consecutive races and know that is where
their racing season turned around.

About Northern Tool + Equipment
Northern Tool + Equipment has been a supplier of high-quality tools and
equipment for more than 27 years, selling products through direct mail,
the Internet and at nearly 65 retail locations in 11 states. Along with
a deep selection of hand, power and air tools, Northern Tool + Equipment
carries a wide variety of products, including generators, pressure
washers, air compressors, hydraulics, small engines, trailers, water
pumps, tractors, welding equipment and much more. Northern Tool +
Equipment also serves as the exclusive distributor of NorthStarTM brand
equipment, which is fabricated and assembled at the company’s 250,000
sq. ft. manufacturing facility. For more information, visit
www.northerntool.com.

About Roush Fenway Racing
Roush Fenway Racing operates 13 full-time motorsports teams, five in
NASCAR Sprint Cup with drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg
Biffle, Carl Edwards and David Ragan; four in the Nationwide Series with
Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, McMurray, Ragan, Erik Darnell and Colin Braun;
three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Darnell, Braun, Travis Kvapil
and John Wes Townley; and one in the ARCA RE/MAX Series with Ricky
Stenhouse, Jr. For more information on any of the Roush Fenway Racing
teams, log onto www.RoushFenway.com.

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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