Darnell is 14th in the Craftsman Truck Series championship standings, best of any Raybestos Rookie. He trails 13th-place Matt Crafton by three points and leads 15th-place Brendan Gaughan by 192.

Darnell was also the Raybestos Rookie of the Race this past March at Atlanta (race No. 3), grabbing a ninth-place finish.

Erik Darnell, No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford:
You did not need that last caution flag. "No, we didn't. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was good all night. John Quinn and all the guys gave me a great setup for the race because we struggled a little bit in practice there. Before that last yellow we had it wound up on the top and that thing was running pretty good. I knew Bliss was going to try to go down low, he was going to have to go down low, and I think with the momentum we had then we were able to keep him behind us but I knew he was strong. He led early there and was able to run away from us. Unfortunately we got beat by a better truck tonight."

How much did you learn with such a frantic finish? "It is wild out there at a place like this, high speed, the draft really comes into play with these things. You can get a run down on the bottom but you have to pinch it off so much coming up off the corner that the topside was the way to be out there, at least for us. Some of those guys got the bottom to work pretty well. I just learned a lot running out there with guys like David Reutimann, Rick Crawford, Ted Musgrave. We're getting better every week and I think had we had two finishes that we should have at Vegas and Talladega we'd be fighting for top-10 in points. We're going to go out and try to get top-fives for the rest of the year."

You had an awesome day and almost won the race. "Our Ford was really good out there. John Quinn and all the guys put together a great truck for me. There before that last yellow we really had it running up there on the top. Bliss got underneath us; I knew he was going to be tough. We didn't need that yellow. He had been good and unfortunately we got beat by a better truck tonight."

What are your thoughts for the rest of the season? "We're just going to try to go out and get top-fives. That was kind of our goal here these last couple of races. Our ultimate goal is Raybestos Rookie of the Year and try to get back in the top-10 in points and if we can go out there and get top-fives week in and week out, we've got two in a row now, I think we'll be right there fighting for it."

You ran well in both races here so you must like this place. "I do like this place. I said after we came here in the spring that this was probably the favorite track I've ever run on. It's fun, it's fast, and you can run from the top to the bottom. If your truck is not working on the bottom you go up top and try it up there. Just the fact that there is so much room out there to run. It just makes it a lot of fun out there. Good racing, side-by-side racing, three-wide, and I just enjoy it. I enjoy the mile-and-a-halfs but this one is my favorite."

Your truck was good all day. "Like I said, John Quinn and all those guys, they did a really good job in the pits. We started off tight and ended up tight at the end of the night but the adjustments kind of kept us up there toward the front, kind of kept us running with the whole thing. I think we needed to be a little bit looser on that long run there at the end but I guess you can't argue with third."

Chad McCumbee, No. 08 The GPS Store/Garmin Chevrolet:
"We've had a bunch of bad weeks. It's so easy to get down and frustrated and impatient. We've got to keep everybody's spirits up and we came here and run good. It's a great run for the team and like I said to come from the back like that and run good all night, I couldn't ask for more. That's what we needed."

Was the racing intense all through the pack? "It was tough. One time we get spread out in the top-10 there and up solid in there, I would just kind of ride because you're just making laps and work on our truck a little bit. But going through the field you had to go. You can't just sit back there because there was some wild stuff going on. I learned from a few veterans there. I watched Hornaday go up through there a little quicker than I did to start with so I learned a few things there and it worked the next couple of times. I learned valuable lessons for today. It was a really good run for us."

Are you going to take this truck to Texas? "You know, we're going to have to think about it. We ran ninth at Texas with a different truck that's actually our backup truck here. Man, I really don't know what we're going to do now. I'm sure we'll have a decision to make."

Bobby East, No. 21 State Fair Corndogs/Edy's Dibs Ford:
"It really helps out in traffic coming back to a track. But gosh, that was fun. That race right there was fun. We've come a long way on our mile-and-a-half program and I just want to thank everybody for that."

What is your situation for next season? "Honestly, man, I'm thinking about Texas. That's it. I'm just taking it one weekend at a time and we'll see what happens."

Scott Lagasse Jr., No. 04 Fastenal Dodge:
"We're happy with where we ended up. We were really, really loose to start and really, really, really loose to finish and for whatever reason, we don't know why. It was a handful. But I learned and I was happy with it. I got in and out in one piece and that's what we were here to do. I feel like we did the best we could do."

Was it hard to keep up with the track? "The crew chief and I think the coolness actually freed it up real bad because we kept trying to tighten it up and we kept getting more free."

Marcos Ambrose, No. 20 Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Ford:
"Just a missed opportunity. We had a better truck than where we finished but that's the way she goes. We finished strong and we'll move on to next week."

What did you learn here that will help you at Texas? "Not too much. Here, this track, the asphalt is getting really old and it's a really different style of racetrack to run on. I really enjoyed it. I've learned a lot. I'll come back next year with much better appreciation of this place and with much more knowledge to hopefully do better."

This was an intense race. "Yeah it was. It was loose all day for us and when you're loose, you're hanging on."