11-11-2006 | Truckseries.com Report
Erik Darnell in the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race at Phoenix. Darnell finished 10th in tonight's race, his 11th top-10 finish of the 2006 season. He took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 14th time in 24 races. Erik Darnell, No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford: Aric Almirola, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet: Erin Crocker, No. 98 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge: How important is it to build some momentum for the 2007 season? "It's big, it's really big. That off-season can be really long and miserable when things are down and you're not confident. It's good to end the year on a high note." Marcos Ambrose, No. 20 Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Ford: Why were you penalized? "Someone jumped over the wall and picked up a tire. He shouldn't have been there. It was just one of those deals. There's a lot of people on pit lane. You can't really blame anyone. It just happens." You continue to run well. "We qualified top-10. We probably ran top10 pace there. We got trapped a lap down there trying to get through the pack. That's the way she goes." Kraig Kinser, No. 46 Ginn Clubs & Resorts Chevrolet: Running well tonight must give you some confidence. "Yeah, we were definitely decent. I think we could have been better, especially during that long run. I wasn't hitting my marks at the start of it. I just wore the tires out trying to force it into the turns. I've got a little bit to learn. Just have a little bit more to go." Other top-10 finishes by Raybestos Rookies in fall race at Phoenix:
"It was decent. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford wasn't that good tonight. We really struggled in practice. I think we were 24th in the second practice there. The thing just wasn't that good. John Quinn and all the guys did a great job. They threw some stuff at it and qualified better than I thought we would. The truck still wasn't that good. They didn't give up on me. They adjusted on it during the race. I'm not very happy with the finish but it's another top-10. The truck was really too tight, especially on the long runs. We threw some pretty big adjustments at it during the last pit stop and it didn't do much to it at all. The truck just didn't seem to want to respond to anything tonight so we were fighting for everything we could. We got lucky there with the lap traffic. We picked the right line there a couple times and were able to make up a couple spots and ended up in the top-10 but that's about it, though."
"I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. We were everything tonight. We were tight, we were loose and we were no good whatsoever."
You had a good night. "I did have a good night but, of course, being the competitive person that I am I'm mad that we were up to 13th and I lost those spots on the restart. I should have known that with Hornaday behind me he's known for his restarts. He got me. But yeah, I'm happy. That ties our best finish ever in the truck series and it's good to be on an uphill swing right now. I feel like we've got momentum building. It might be small for us but it's big. We went through a slump in the summer. It's feels good."
"We got a penalty and had to drop to the back and then everyone was stuck there. A lot of the good trucks early on went a lap down, myself and Bobby Hamilton and Kyle Busch. We fought back and got the Lucky Dog pretty quick and we gained more spots than we should have there at the end. I was just fighting all the way to the finish."
"We were just scraping together a finish there at the end of the race. I didn't have much to race with. We had a decent truck. I made a pit stop and just right after a pit stop trucks will have tire pressures down. I got loose off the turn, caught it and just kicked it out again and right at the end got cleaned out. I had another truck coming behind us, cleaned us out. It's unfortunate. We had a decent truck. We probably should have been a top-15 truck. We were definitely running good tonight."