Erik Darnell took the checkered flag for the first time in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career with today's victory at Kansas Speedway. Darnell qualified 10th, but was forced to start at the rear of the field for an unapproved adjustment during the impound period.

• Darnell recorded Ford's first truck series victory of the 2007 season in the series' fifth race.
• Darnell went to victory lane in his second series start at Kansas Speedway and 31st overall, and extended Roush Fenway Racing's all-time series win mark to 44, the most in series history.
• Ford has now won 79 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races all time.
• Ford's win today is its fourth truck series victory at Kansas Speedway - and second consecutive - the most of any manufacturer (J. Wood -1, C. Edwards -1, T. Cook -1, Darnell -1).

Erik Darnell No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 1st)
"It feels awesome. We've been trying so hard and we've been so close so many times and I haven't been able to pull it off. Today we were finally able to put all of the pieces together and then finish this thing."

You had a strong truck and a big lead at the end. What were your thoughts during the final laps? "With 10 to go when you have a lead like that, you just kinda go out there and ride around. We were coming up on a lot of lapped traffic and those guys were shuffling around quite a bit, and at that point you just get up there and kinda ride, and that's what we did. I just can't say enough about John Quinn (crew chief) and the guys on this crew. This Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 was fantastic."

Did you adjust on the truck and make it better as the race progressed? "It was the best at the end. We had two pit stops there. We got it close on the first pit stop and then the second pit stop we made a couple of more adjustments and got the thing just about perfect. The thing drove great and I could go anywhere on track and it's just a testament to the whole crew and all the guys back at the shop that put this thing together because it was fantastic."

Stacy Compton No. 09 Zaxby's Ford F-150 (Finished 14th)
"We had a great truck. We ran about third in line all night. We passed the second- and third-place guy a couple of times. We just had a loose wheel early on and had to pit under green and got a lap down. Great calls. The truck was great all night. It was fun. It was fun to be a top-five truck, but it was a little disappointing that we didn't come away with a finish."

Talk about the stretches of green flag racing. "The racing was good. It made it interesting when you had to pit under green. I just wish that we could have pitted with everybody else."

Travis Kvapil No. 6 K & N Filters Ford F-150 (Finished 13th)
"We had a fast truck all day. The beginning was great. I knew that I wasn't really going to have much for the 5 in the first half of the race, so we just settled in there second or third. Our first pit stop under green, I got busted for speeding, the very last pit stall. It is what it is. I'm really surprised. I thought that I wasn't, but, of course, there's no way around that. Then we just fought. We were in the Lucky Dog position a few times, but we just couldn't quite get it to fall our way. We definitely had a top-five truck. We just feel a little short of luck, I guess."

The gains that the Roush trucks have made since California, is that a testament to the work you've done in the past month? "That's what's really great. We all sat down after Martinsville and Jack Roush said, 'Hey, we know you guys can drive, we've just got to get you fast trucks.' They cut the bodies up and really did their homework. Erik looked like he had the dominant truck, and the first half of the race I was right there with him, and the second half we were definitely a top-two or three truck. I'm just proud of everybody in the K & N team. Erik, and TJ ran strong for a while, and it was good to see the Fords up front."

Rick Crawford No. 14 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l F-150 (Finished 2nd)
"We worked hard. The Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l, everybody needs to take a chance and go out there and test drive one of these F-150s; it's a great truck. Congratulations to Erik Darnell for winning. He did a good job. It's great to have Fords here one-two here at a Ford race track. I can't say enough about Ford Motor Co. Kevin Starland and all of the guys on the Circle Bar race team did a heck of job. They worked really hard today and I appreciate it."

Did you have anything for Darnell if there was a late caution? "There toward the end I was running a few laps. I wasn't consistent and he was running consistent for what he needed to run. I ran a few laps faster than he was, but I couldn't catch him because he had too big of a lead."

David Starr No. 10 International Maxx Force Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 15th)
"We've got a lot of momentum on our side. Dennis Connor (crew chief), Jason and all of the guys on the team are just doing a heck of a job. It's a shame that we got down a lap early because I think they were telling me that I was the fastest truck throughout the race. We were really good, but track position was big. I couldn't believe how many trucks were in front of us. When it all spread out and we were fast, we just never could get to the front. We definitely had a good truck today. This International Maxx Force Diesel F-150 was awesome. Definitely the finishing result doesn't show how good we were today. We were good, but we're gaining on it. We're disappointed with the finish, but we're definitely gaining on it. I'm happy that we're gaining on it."

Were the track conditions any different racing here in April compared to August? "I don't think it was. It was a great race. My truck, it took my truck four, five or six laps to get going and just took me a little bit to get going. But once we got going, man, it was going. Track position was just so critical."

Kelly Bires No. 21 Air Force/Bush's Baked Beans Ford F-150 (Finished 31st)
Was there any warning that the motor was about to expire? "No. We just came off of four there and got right before the start-finish line and it just blew up. There were no vibrations; no nothing letting us know it was going to go. The U.S. Air Force Ford was faster. We made the right adjustments on that last run. The stop before that, we got just fuel only, and it kinda hurt us; it knocked the balance off of the truck. But, we got the right adjustments there. We were a little bit looser, and in the beginning of that run it would have been about perfect. We would have had a top-three truck, I think, without a doubt right there. I'm a little bit disappointed, but a good night before that happened and my guys worked really hard and made good pit stops and I'm just real proud of them."

Were you having to lift off the throttle much today? "Yeah, you have to lift. There's a lot of finesse here. It seems like to get the thing to turn you need a little bit of brake. You have to drive them free. If you don't drive them free here you're going to be a little bit too slow."

Erik Darnell Press Conference
"Well, when I went out to qualify today I really didn't know what we were going to have underneath the truck. We struggled with it during the early practice yesterday morning, and we threw some springs at the front end of the thing and never got a chance to go try them because second practice was rained out. So, I really didn't know what we were going to have underneath us. We went out to qualify, the splitter hit the track, we knocked it off and we had to pull it out of line and start at the back of the pack. What John Quinn and all the guys did to the truck, all of the changes they made to it really worked because we were able to, from the start, just drive right through the field up to the front. We kinda stalled out once we got up to about eighth or ninth, but we made our pit stop and made some adjustments and we were able to drive to front from there. On our last pit stop, we fine-tuned it a little bit more, and our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was unbelievable today. Anybody could have driven that thing."

What was it like to come back from last night's second-place ARCA finish to win today? "Well, it was huge. First, I think that all of the laps that I got yesterday in the ARCA race helped me out today just because I was able to get a feel for what the car was going to do in the afternoon and get a feel for what the track was going to do as far as the second groove coming in. I think all that last night helped us. It was disappointing not to win it last night. We were just not quite where we needed to be, but with the truck tonight, we were spot on and I think it showed. We were just able to kinda drive away from everybody today."

How was the second groove? "Well for me coming from the back, it came into play quite a bit just because I was able to go to the high side and get around trucks pretty easily. I was three wide a couple of times in the beginning trying to make my way up through there. I think because we ran it quite a bit in the ARCA race yesterday, we got some rubber laid down and there were actually a lot of guys up there running in it. I'm happy to see that it is kinda coming in like that because it makes the track a little bit more racier than it has been in the past."

How much fun is it to drive a truck that is that fast? "Unbelievable. And, it makes my job a lot easier when those guys give me a piece like that. For me, I was just holding the steering wheel. That's about all I had to do. The thing was so fast. Not to say that I wasn't going as hard as I could when I was out in front there, but I was kinda taking it easy because we were able to pull away as much as we could. I think the setup that we have underneath this thing is something that we can take to some of the other mile-and-a-half intermediate tracks, and hopefully we can have some success there as well."

Where did you feel the turning point of the race was for you today? "The first pit stop. When we drove through the field the first time - and I knew the truck was good and I knew we had a good piece - but we got up to about eighth or ninth and just kinda stalled out. Skinner and some of those guys that were up were still driving away from us, so at that point I knew we had to make some changes on it. When we came down pit road, John Quinn, he made the right call and my whole pit crew did a great job with the pit stop. They pulled off a good stop. I think we picked up a spot or two, and that was the turning point for me because once we went back out on the track and it went green, we were able to drive right past Sprague for the lead and just pull away from there."

Any problems with dirty air? "We were able to (pass in traffic), and that's something that we struggled with last year when we were here. Last year, we had a good qualifying effort - I think we were inside the top 10 - but as soon as it came down to race time we fought the dirty air just like some of the guys were today. We weren't able to keep the nose of the truck down and we weren't able to pass anybody. I could get up to them and then the truck would get tight and lose the nose, and I wouldn't be able to do anything with them. Today, we came with a different front spring package that was able to keep the nose down on the ground, and when I pulled up to them guys, I could turn down underneath them. I could go to the high side or go wherever I wanted to go, and the truck was really good."

"I don't know. They say that the first one is the hardest one to get and then they come a little bit easier after that. So, hopefully that's true. We were close a couple of times last year. We led a couple of races inside 10 to go and ended up not winning them, kinda like what we had yesterday with the ARCA race. Just to get that first win out of the way, to know that I'm capable of doing this and that the team is capable of doing this gives us some confidence. We were struggling the first four races this year. The way that we ended last year, I really don't know why we were struggling as much as we were this year. I think this will give us some momentum and hopefully kick start our season."

"We definitely hit the setup right. I think that was a big part of it. But, our Roush-Yates Fords have always been strong. The Toyotas have really gotten stuff figured out in the truck series, and we definitely hit on a setup today, and it showed that the other manufacturers are still competitive with the Toyotas and that we can run with them."

"Well, I do think about. In that sense, it kinda puts some pressure on me just because I know that Carl (Edwards) was the last young guy to come up through the 99 truck and he's been very successful, so I know Jack was kinda looking for the same thing when he replaced Carl or put somebody else in the truck. It's definitely some pressure that I've felt, and I know that Carl had some success in it, but hopefully this will get our season going and hopefully this will be the first of many to come."

"Well, not a different mindset than I would normally have, but I was little bit frustrated with the way that the race went yesterday. I think that had we had the setup a little bit better that we could have won that race. And, I honestly believe that we should have won that race if we worked on the car a little bit. I made a bad call yesterday, so I kinda got in the truck today with the mindset that I did want to go out there and run well. But like I said before, I think that all of the laps yesterday helped me a lot, and helped me figure out the line around the track and what the track changes were going to be like going throughout the evening. That just helped me out a lot."

Rick Crawford Press Conference
"I bought the truck that won last year and I just went and asked Erik if his truck was for sale. I'm trying to eliminate these guys beating me (laughing). It was a hard-fought day today. Yesterday we practiced with the cloud cover and fought a little bit of a tight truck, and then today we were wicked loose until Kevin "Cowboy" Starland fixed it. The F-150 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by Int'l finished second. It was a hard-fought day for us."