Dan Darnstaedt

Dan Darnstaedt one of the more accomplished drivers in the north pits of the Speedbowl during the 1990’s & 2000’s, racking 35 feature wins during this career.

Driving Mini Stocks in their early days when they were part of the Sunday Stocker Series in the early 1990’s, Darnstaedt was one of the competitors who introduced the Saturday night crowd to the four-cylinder division. His battle for the championship with Jeff Karns during the 1995 gave the division a season-long battle to follow throughout their first season on Saturday nights. Although losing out on the championship to Karns, Darnstaedt set the record for wins in a season with 11 driving Jeff Miller’s #53. Darnstaedt would follow it up with 7 more wins in 1996 and finally clinching the Mini Stock Championship.

Darnstaedt spent 1997-1998 mostly driving in the Strictly Stock division, although he did score 2 more Mini Stock wins in 1998. Dan returned regularly to the Minis in the early 2000’s driving for Nate Appell. All told, he went on to win 29 Mini Stock races from 1994-2003. Only Bruce Thomas had more wins in the division at the time and is still good for 4th place on the Mini Stock career wins list.

Dan would later have a couple of successful seasons in the Street Stocks. In 2005 he won 4 times and finished 3rd in the final point standings. He returned in 2012, again driving for Appell, won 2 more features and once again finished 3rd in the final point standings.

He would retire from competition at the Speedbowl soon afterwards. He later relocated to North Carolina. He passed away suddenly on December 20, 2023 at only 57 years old.

STATISTICAL SNAPSHOT

DAN DARNSTAEDT
SPEEDBOWL PHOTO ALBUM