The victory was the first of Darnell's Craftsman Truck Series career. His previous best finish was a second-place result at Memphis last year.

"It feels awesome, we've been trying so hard and we've been so close," said Darnell.

The first portion of the race was completely dominated by Mike Skinner who led every lap until the first round of green-flag pit stops on lap 59.

Then both Jack Sprague and Darnell took turns leading while Skinner was content to ride along in the bottom portion of the top-10 waiting for the final sprint to the finish.

Kelly Bires was running a great race, in third place, until the engine blew on lap 120 to slow the race and set up the run to the finish.

Darnell and Aaron Fike lead the restart, but just behind them were veterans Rick Crawford, Jack Sprague and Skinner.

Skinner made his way around Sprague with 35 laps to go and he looked very smooth in doing it.

But Darnell was trying to run and hide, opening up more than a one second lead. Crawford and Fike battled for second and it let Darnell get even further away. With 30 laps to go, Skinner ducked below Fike for third place, but both Crawford and Skinner were more than four seconds behind the leader.

The lead was more than eight seconds with 24 laps to go.

Could anyone catch Darnell without a caution flag?

No one was making any kind of headway, in fact the margin had expanded to nine seconds with 12 laps remaining. Darnell held 11 seconds over Crawford with four laps to go. Only a caution flag or a mechanical problem could keep him from the win.

There was no caution and Darnell collected his first-ever Craftsman Truck Series win in his 31st start.

"I could go anywhere I wanted to on the track, its a testament to the crew," said Darnell.

Sprague, Johnny Benson and Skinner completed the top-five.

The next race in the series is set for Friday, May 18th at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, NC.

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