Auto Racing

TALLADEGA — When Erik Darnell looks around from the pole in today's Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, he'll see a lot of familiar faces.

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Slideshow: ARCA RE/MAX 250 View photos from the ARCA RE/MAX 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The 25-year-old Darnell led an historic parade of Roush Fenway Fords to the front of the starting grid Friday when he took the pole for the Mountain Dew 250 Fueled by Winn-Dixie with a top lap of 181.753 mph.

Directly to his right is Roush teammate John Wes Townley (181.563) and right behind him is Roush driver No. 3, rookie Colin Braun (181.093).

"It was a good lap," Darnell said. "We found out in practice (Thursday) that we had a pretty good truck. All three of the Roush-Fenway trucks are pretty fast. We concentrated primarily on getting it to run well in the draft, which I think we accomplished.

"This is the same truck we had at Daytona. It was pretty good there. We led a bunch of laps with it. Just getting the pole is kind of the icing on the cake."

It's the first time in the 14-year history of the series a team owner has qualified 1-2-3. The last time Roush qualified its trucks 1-2 at Talladega was 2006, the first year they ran the series here (Mark Martin and David Ragan).

The last time any team qualified 1-2 was this year at Bristol (Scott Speed and Johnny Benson).

"To see all three Roush Fenway cars in the top three is pretty impressive," Braun said. "It really just shows the hard work the guys have been doing at the shop; they've been working their butts off … and my crew chief (Mike Beam), he's a pretty smart guy when it comes to setting up trucks on these superspeedways."

But Roush across the board has had a strong track record on the big tracks with its trucks program. Martin won both races at Talladega and Daytona in 2006.

History is on his side. Both of the previous truck winners at Talladega claimed the checkered flag from the pole.

It looked as though Darnell was going to be there at Daytona in February, too. He sat on the pole, led twice for 45 laps and was out front late before a wreck ended his chances. He led 56 laps at Las Vegas two weeks ago, but finished 0.02 seconds behind winner Mike Skinner.

"That was a heartbreaker," Darnell said of the Daytona finish. "Leading with inside of 15 to go and not getting the win was a little bit frustrating."

If not for Darnell's hot lap, Townley would have replaced Kyle Busch as the youngest pole winner in series history.

Jon Wood (179.289) qualified fourth, giving Ford the top four spots on the starting grid.

Johnny Benson, who holds a one-point lead over Ron Hornaday Jr. in the title chase, starts 17th. He had a 74-point lead all but evaporate after a 27th-place finish at Vegas.

Today: Mountain Dew 250
3 p.m., SPEED, 92.7 FM

Mountain Dew 250 lineup

After Friday qualifying; race
Today At Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega
Lap length: 2.66 miles
(Car number in parentheses)

1. (99) Erik Darnell, Ford, 181.753.
2. (09) John Wes Townley, Ford, 181.563.
3. (6) Colin Braun, Ford, 181.093.
4. (21) Jon Wood, Ford, 179.289.
5. (30) Todd Bodine, Toyota, 178.904.
6. (59) Joey Logano, Toyota, 178.810.
7. (33) Ron Hornaday, Jr., Chevrolet, 178.650.
8. (18) Dennis Setzer, Dodge, 178.414.
9. (5) Mike Skinner, Toyota, 178.258.
10. (9) Mike Wallace, Toyota, 178.191.
11. (14) Rick Crawford, Ford, 178.125.
12. (88) Matt Crafton, Chevrolet, 178.042.
13. (51) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 177.831.
14. (13) Shelby Howard, Chevrolet, 177.652.
15. (60) Terry Cook, Toyota, 177.577.
16. (22) Scott Speed, Toyota, 177.550.
17. (23) Johnny Benson, Toyota, 177.373.
18. (15) John Andretti, Toyota, 177.232.
19. (2) Jack Sprague, Chevrolet, 177.186.
20. (10) Brendan Gaughan, Ford, 177.186.
21. (8) Chad McCumbee, Chevrolet, 177.114.
22. (07) Sean Murphy, Chevrolet, 176.930.
23. (16) Brian Scott, Toyota, 176.845.
24. (7) T.J. Bell, Jr., Chevrolet, 176.747.
25. (81) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 176.341.
26. (11) David Starr, Toyota, 175.771.
27. (08) Jason White, Dodge, 175.430.
28. (40) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 175.417.
29. (0) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, 174.796.
30. (28) Wayne Edwards, Chevrolet, 173.384.
31. (48) Bryan Silas, Chevrolet, 173.077.
32. (53) Justin Hobgood, Chevrolet, 172.861.
33. (89) Richard Johns, Chevrolet, 167.164.