Erik Darnell picked up his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Budweiser Pole award on Saturday at the Nashville Superspeedway, and did so in record fashion. Darnell's No. 99 Ford eclipsed the previous track record by .124 of a second. Darnell's first pole came in his 17th career start.

Darnell was the first truck to take the green flag, but the No. 60 of Jack Sprague made a move at the start, overtaking Darnell in turn one. The No. 99 got hung on the outside, and Darnell started to fall back in the field. The No. 99 showed ninth when the first caution came at lap six. "I can't keep it on the bottom right now," he said.

Darnell was involved in an incident on lap 27 when the No. 9 truck got loose. When the field checked up, the No. 99 was hit from behind by teammate David Ragan. The contact sent Darnell down the 14 degree banking and into the infield grass. Crew chief John Quinn called Darnell to pit road to clean the grass and debris from the grill and assess the damage.
The No. 99 spent a considerable amount of time on pit road, but was able to get back to the track as the leaders took the green. It would only take a few laps before the leader overtook Darnell, putting him one lap down to the field. Darnell reported that the truck had a vibration and would need to come in for service. Another quick caution period allowed Darnell to hit pit road to take on tires and give the crew another shot at making repairs.

Despite the problems with the truck, Darnell continued to soldier on and began recording lap times as fast as the trucks running in the top five.

Darnell would stay on track and bide his time, and when the No. 02 truck spun at lap 96, the No. 99 truck was shown as the Lucky Dog, allowing Darnell to get back on the lead lap. Knowing his truck had problems, Darnell hung towards the back of the pack, gaining positions when he could.

The race was extended into overtime for a late caution period, giving the leaders one last restart. When the green flag dropped for the final time, the lead trucks got into each other causing the field to stack up behind them. Darnell stayed in the throttle and picked up positions from the melee, bringing the No. 99 home in the 12th position.

"We sat on the pole, but when we got sent through the infield, it screwed something up on the truck; it wasn't driving right afterwards," said Darnell. "I think we knocked something out of alignment and it was pushing the pistons out of one of the calipers, so I didn't have any brakes down there either and I had to pump them up going down the straightaway. I was having a tough time with that because I couldn't race anybody, I couldn't get in the throttle really hard. We just kinda decided that we were going to ride it out there at the end. We got our lap back and got the best we could do with it today."

Darnell and the No. 99 team currently sit 14th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings. Darnell continues to lead the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings over Chad McCumbee. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competes next at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 23.