Eric Darnell, No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment at the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

Erik Darnell scored his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win in dominating fashion at Kansas Speedway on Saturday.  Darnell's win came in his 31st career start.  After posting a 10th place qualifying effort, the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment team was sent to the rear of the field for unapproved impound adjustments.  The 24-year-old driver overcame adversity to pick up the win by 10.440 seconds over fellow Ford driver Rick Crawford.

"It feels awesome," said Darnell.  "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.  This Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 was fantastic."

Darnell posted the 10th fastest time in qualifying on Saturday, but on the second lap of his run, the truck bottomed out resulting in the front splitter being torn off the lower nose of the No. 99 Ford.  The Northern Crew + Equipment crew was forced to bring the truck to their garage and repair the damaged truck.  Due to NASCAR's impound rule, Darnell would have to start the race from the rear of the field.

By the fourth lap of the race, Darnell had advanced to the 26th position.  A spin at lap six involving the No. 40 truck brought out the first caution of the day, and crew chief John Quinn made the call to bring Darnell to pit road to top off the fuel cell.

Darnell restarted in the 29th position, and began his charge to the front of the field.  At lap 32, the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford broke inside the top-10 for the first time.  As the laps clicked off and green flag pit stops began for the leaders, Darnell inherited the lead at lap 60.

Darnell relinquished the lead at lap 66 when he brought the Northern Tool + Equipment Ford to pit road for tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.  A caution flew shortly after the cycle of green flag stops, allowing the running order to be sorted back out.  Darnell restarted in the second position when the green flag brought the field back racing at lap 79.

It took just three laps for Darnell to reassert himself at the front of the field, working his way around Jack Sprague at lap 82.  Darnell held the lead until the caution flag came at lap 108 for a wreck involving the No. 07 truck.  The field came to pit road at lap 111, and quick work by the Northern Tool + Equipment crew allowed Darnell to get off pit road once again with the lead.  Darnell would hold the lead for the rest of the race, running away from the field to record one of the largest margins of victory in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

"My whole crew did a great job today, John Quinn and all the guys," said Darnell.  "They say that the first one is the hardest one to get and then they come a little bit easier after that.  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, kind of 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.  This Northern Tool + Equipment team, we've got a great bunch of guys and I think we'll be able to get things going for the rest of the year"

Darnell and the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment team gained two spots to move inside the top-10 in points with their win at Kansas, 254 points out of first place.  The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competes next at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 18.