ERIK DARNELL -- No. 96 Academy Sports + Outdoors Ford Fusion (Qualified 45th)
IS IT PROVING TO BE AS TOUGH AS YOU THOUGHT? "Absolutely, probably a little tougher. Not having any laps in these things really prior to coming here was gonna be a challenge, but on top of that this place is tough -- with the tires we're on and the way these cars drive. Honestly, if I could have picked where my first race was gonna be, it wouldn't have been here, so the learning curve has been pretty steep. Ben Leslie and all the guys on this Academy Sports + Outdoors Ford Fusion have done a good job making changes. The car has been reacting, it's been more or less getting me up to speed. We knew we were in the race, so we've got three hundred and some-odd laps to get it figured out. It's been tough to this point."
FINISHING IS THE MAIN GOAL TOMORROW. "Just to get some laps in these things. I've pretty much had nothing coming into this deal, so this is all new to me. These guys make it look easy."
HOW WAS QUALIFYING, STRESSFUL? YOU WERE ALREADY IN THE RACE. "There's stress because you want to put down a decent lap, which we didn't do. But, on the other side of that, we do know that we're in the race and there's no point in taking a chance that we don't need to take in qualifying."
ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO FIND THAT EDGE IN THESE CARS? "Absolutely. I thought I was just getting Nationwide qualifying figured out and now you've got to go and do it in these things in Atlanta, one of the fastest tracks we go to. It's been pretty daunting, but, again, it's all about the race tomorrow night. This being the first one in this type of car is not easy. All of the guys on the team have been great so far. I think they know that coming into this deal with a true rookie that they were going to have to work with me a little bit and they have, and I appreciate that, but it's all about making laps tomorrow night and getting a feel for these things and moving from there."
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