ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 – (finished 2nd, qualified 7th) – WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CLOSING LAPS? “Skinner got a run and I tried to hold him off. I ran those last two laps wide open and I’m sure he did too. His truck was just a little bit better than ours on a restart. And I got a little bit loose getting down there and he got to the outside of me and that was about it. If it was a green flag racing, we would have run away with the race. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was really good. Just the way the draft works on these super speedways, the guys behind can stay with you for a little while. Once we got about four or five green flag laps on our tires we could just drive away from them. It’s frustrating. I’m disappointed, but it was a good points day for us. It’s good to see Mike [Skinner] get his first win of the year, but I wish it would have been us in victory lane.”
ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 PRESS CONFERENCE – TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAP. “We needed green flag laps at the end. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford was really good once we got about five laps on them. All those restarts at the end killed us. Mike [Skinner] was better for two or three laps and I was able to drive away from him. And he got a good run getting into [turn] one and kind of got out there on my right rear and got me just a little loose and he got the momentum he needed to get up on the high side and he got a push down the backstretch and got ahead of me on that last lap going into three. I said, ‘I’m going to hold it wide open. I’m either going to pass him or I’m gonna wreck it trying.’ And I got back out there and thought I was going to win the drag race back to the start-finish line but unfortunately he got there first.” WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS RACE THAT CAUSED ALL THOSE WRECKS AT THE END? “It was hard racing and the hard tire that I think we had on there tonight. I think we saw it in practice and definitely in the race out there, the tire was real hard and your just kind of skating around out there. It made it tough to race unless your truck was real good and I think the other wrecks were product of the harder tires and guys trying to get all they could at the end.” DID YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS THAT MIKE [SKINNER] MIGHT HAVE TRIED TO TURN YOU TO PASS YOU? “No, not all at. Mike has always run me clean and I do the same with him and I probably had some of the best races out there on the track with Mike just because we can run each other like that. I knew he wasn’t going to turn me. He definitely pushed me a little bit there before we got into [turn] one but he wasn’t going to wreck me to do that. I know he’s hungry for a win too. He hasn’t won one yet this year. Congratulations to him. I was really looking forward to picking that one up.” MIKE [SKINNER] SAID HE KIND OF FAKED IT TOWARDS THE BOTTOM, DID YOU SEE IT THAT WAY OR WERE YOU JUST GOING TO PROTECT THE BOTTOM THE WHOLE WAY? “I was just going to protect the bottom the whole way on that restart because the couple before that, one side got to one that was on the bottom. It seemed if Mike got behind me, he would get a little bit tight. I got a pretty decent start and drove it in there real hard and I was wide open. I thought I was going to be able to pull away from him but he got just to the outside of the right rear and just got it a little bit loose and he was able to get that run on me coming off of [turn] two and he got a push down the backstretch and that got him ahead of me.”
RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral/Power Stroke Diesel by Ford F-150 – (finished 6th, qualified 10th) – “In the end, I was hoping to congratulate Erik Darnell. Mike [Skinner] and Erik ran good all night. My Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International F-Series pick up was built Ford tough. We should have been third or fourth because it ran there all night long. It was really strong and it didn’t deserve a sixth place finish. It’s just one of those deals where it was a great race for the fans, it was a hard-fought race. I drove as hard as I could all night. It’s one of those deals where you know you could have run fourth and finish sixth and you’re okay and everything is in one piece and go on to the next one.” DID THE CAUTIONS AT THE END HELP OR HURT YOU? “It made us make some bold moves. We were ninth and 10th with Brendan [Gaughan], my teammate right behind me at one point in time. At another point in time we were fourth after that but the caution came out and they put me back to seventh and we made it back to sixth. We just ran out of time.”
COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 – (finished 12th, qualified 2nd) – WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t even really know. I have no idea what happened. We were coming off the corner there and the next thing I knew we were turned around sideways, wrecking on the front straightaway. I’m real disappointed for these guys. We had a really fast truck and we thought we’d be able to bring it back to the shop, work on it and get it ready for Texas and be real fast with it. But, I’m not sure what happened.” ARE YOU OKAY? “Yep, I’m fine.” YOU HAD YOUR BEST STARTING POSITION AND HAD A SOLID RUN IN THE TOP-10 ALL NIGHT. “Yeah, it was a real good run for us. It’s frustrating when you can’t bring top-five, top-10 runs home. We struggled the last two weeks doing that now. I don’t know what we have to do, but it’s tough and I feel bad for all these guys. They worked really hard. It’s disappointing.” DID THE CAUTIONS AT THE END HELP OR HURT YOU? “It hurt us. We were way better on long runs than we were on the green-white-checkered deals or restarts. It’s disappointing that it didn’t go green for longer but at the same point, we weren’t too bad. We were wishing to bring home a top-three finish and call it a day.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN – No. 10 International MAXX Force Diesel Ford F-150 – (finished 20th, qualified 12th) –“It was an exciting night and unfortunate for the MAXX Force Ford. This is kind of what happens to us. We run great and in the end something happens. I love Jack Sprague off the race track, him and I are buddies, but he’s running high in my line, so I go low and decides to pinch me down and hold me low. I run on the outside of everybody and I don’t make everybody spin out. I don’t pinch them down. But we still come home, even with the damage. I’ve got to give a big, big, big thank you to Jack Roush and Roush Yates engines. I begged them to help me out as much as they could at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And I tell you, this was one heck of a motor we had underneath this thing tonight. I think the body was better after we got the damage, we got rid of the loose, so we good. Without all of those cautions, we probably would have been second. We were faster than Skinner. We just couldn’t get anywhere and then in the end, it was a great finish. Just unfortunately for us, we started spinning and it took me the whole back straightaway to catch it. I didn’t hit anything and I saved it. Hopefully, we gave a good show for the fans.”
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