How Darin Russell, from Sunderland, MA, rose through the ranks in NASCAR

LOUDON, NH – Like a baseball pitcher trying to evade the eyes of umpires who spot sticky stuff, or a hockey defenseman trying to get away with an extra countercheck, Darin Russell knows that pushing the limits is necessary in any competitive business.

“I love challenges,” said Russell, a Sunderland, Mass. Product, who tunes the engine for Brad Keselowski’s The # 2 Ford Mustang, a key part of the squad chasing a second straight Foxwoods 301 victory on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (3 p.m., NBCSN).

With NASCAR these days using Hawk-Eye cameras rather than tape measures to scan cars for compliance, Russell and his cohorts are looking for smaller edges than ever before. Over the past decade, engine technology has evolved from carburetion to fuel injection. The Next Gen car, which will be unveiled at Daytona next year, promises to be a game-changer. The pandemic has reduced traveling NASCAR teams from 12 to five, making experience and versatility a must.

Russell, 40, has all that and a lot of persistence after 22 years on the road. His story is similar to that of many northerners who got into auto racing: he came from a family who loved to go fast and work on cars.

Growing up just north of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he was driving trucks around a neighbor’s farm at the age of 12, when he attended his first race in Loudon. He was under the hood at 14, infatuated with a race car at a local auto store (he might have taken it out for a few laps without a license).

“When it came to using a clutch,” he said, “I was a bit more advanced at a young age.”

Russell also loved UMass basketball and the Red Sox, but his love of engines sent him from Franklin County Tech in Turners Falls to Nashville Auto-Diesel College, now Lincoln Tech, Tennessee. In 1998, on Thanksgiving of his senior year, Russell and his roommate knocked on the doors of the Mooresville, NC business park, where most of the NASCAR teams operated. Hopes brought a stack of resumes, but most of the buildings were dark as the season had just ended.

Fortunately, Russell remembers, he met someone he thought was a janitor opening a locked office. He was a veteran engine builder Mike egge, who was helping a colleague who had forgotten his key. Egge liked the 19-year-old and his boyfriend (who is no longer with the company) so much that he offered them places in the Robert Yates Racing engine shop.

“My jaw hit the ground,” Russell said. “I would have swept the floors, I would have worked on tires, whatever.”

He began his apprenticeship by wrecking cars, but quickly found his first gig of engine tuning with Darrell Waltrip’s Car number 66. After four years, Russell spent two years with Evernham Motorsports and Casey kahne No. 9, and has been with the Penske team for the past 16 years.

“My first year or two, I didn’t say anything,” Russell said. “I was just taking everything and learning as much as possible. If you work hard in the race, you will progress quickly.

Larson’s time?

It was the summer of Kyle larson. The 28-year-old, who this week extended his contract with Hendrick Motorsports for next season, finished second at Darlington, Dover and Circuit of the Americas before winning four consecutive races (Charlotte, Sonoma, Texas and Nashville). He has never won at Loudon and has led 16 laps in 10 career starts. Larson will leave 10th Sunday. . . No one has won more NHMS Cup Series races than Kevin harvic (four; tied with Jeff Burton). The Stewart-Haas Racing veteran hasn’t won this year, having achieved a career-high nine times last year. A win would cement Harvick’s position in the playoffs. He, Austin dillon, and Tyler reddick are fighting to stay in the top 16, while Chris Buescher, Matt DiBenedetto, and Ross Chastain are outside to watch. . . Of the three New Englanders racing on Sunday, only Joey logano (Middletown, Connecticut) hoisted Loudon the Lobster in 2009. Logano starts 15th, while Ryan precece (Berlin, Connecticut) and Rookie Candidate of the Year Anthony Alfredo (Ridgefield, Connecticut) start on New Jersey 25 and 27, respectively Martin Truex Jr., who considers the Magic Mile to be his home run, starts second. He has seven top five in 27 NHMS starts. . . Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte will be in the booth of the NBCSN broadcast team. . . Pre-race TV coverage will include an article about the broadcaster Ken squier (Waterbury, Vermont) and its Family Farm Innovation Fund. . . Jeb burton won pole for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, the Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 (3 p.m., NBCSN). He was a finalist of the Foxwoods 301 pole-sitter Kyle busch last weekend in Atlanta. Busch said it was the last Xfinity race of his career. . . The Whelen 100 race starts at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Matt Porter can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyports.