Darnell picks up pace in final AMS practice session (cont'd)

Like most young drivers, Darnell's ultimate goal is a full-time Sprint Cup ride. And in order to do that, he'll have to prove himself capable of stepping up in class. At the same time, he knows one misstep could permanently damage his chances of getting another shot.

"Hopefully, we have some good finishes that can turn into something for next year," Darnell said. "That's what I hope for and that's what I would I would definitely like to see happen because I do want to make it to the Sprint Cup tour one day.

"Being a young racer, this has always been my dream to make it to this level and this is gonna be my chance to go out there and show what I can do, but as far as plans for next year or anything set in stone, there's nothing there yet. It's all gonna depend on these seven races. Hopefully, they go well and we can turn that into something, but as far as these go, that's all I've got right now."

The key, according to Darnell, is doing exactly what the team expects of him, the No. 1 thing: bring the car home in one piece.

"Realistically, for this weekend I don't think I could put a finishing position or a number on it," Darnell said. "For us, it's gonna be to go out, be solid in practice, make changes to the car to make it faster, qualify well and run all the laps. That's the big goal for this weekend. If you're sitting on jack stands, you're not learning anything, so, for me, it's gonna be going out there and just running all the laps and trying to get a good finish out of this and proving myself."

Adding to Darnell's stress level is the fact that he has limited experience in a Cup chassis. But he understands the challenge before him.

"It's definitely gonna be tough," Darnell said. "There's a lot on my plate, not only for this weekend, but the six races following this. Again, I haven't really tested one of these things very much, but in the little bit of testing that I've done, they're way different than a Nationwide car, they're way different than a truck.

"They're harder to drive. They've got more horsepower, but I almost feel that benefits me as a driver. I don't know why, but for whatever reason a couple years ago when we had more horsepower, I seemed to do better with those things -- when you actually had a little bit of throttle to control the car -- obviously those drive a little better than these do, but it's gonna be tough, there's no question about it, especially being a rookie in this deal and making my first start at Atlanta."

Working in Darnell's favor is his familiarity with Atlanta Motor Speedway. In six previous visits in the Camping World Truck Series, Darnell posted three top-10s, including a third-place effort in 2006.

"Atlanta is a track that I really like," Darnell said. "I've run well here in the trucks in the past. It's gonna be a little bit of a challenge, a learning curve for me. I haven't spent much time in a Cup car before, the COT car, doing testing or anything like that, so it's gonna take a little bit for me to get up to speed, but I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Sharing Nationwide Series seat time with David Ragan in the No. 6 Ford, Darnell earned the pole and finished fourth at Milwaukee, one of his five top-10 finishes in 10 starts. That comes after Darnell finished fourth in the Truck standings in 2008.

"I really feel like the Nationwide Series we've run very competitively over there this year," Darnell said. "I think we ran up front and had a possible shot to win at Darlington. We sat on the pole at Milwaukee. The Nationwide stuff has been going very well and because of that, it kind of gave me my shot to do this.

"I think eventually, they wanted to try and see if I could do it at the Cup level and they wanted to put me in a car and see what I can do, and I guess this was the time to do it. I feel I've kind of proven myself in the lower two series and this is gonna be my shot and this is gonna be my chance to do it. I'm thankful to them for giving me the opportunity to kind of develop in the lower series and, hopefully, this is gonna show that I can do it at the Sprint Cup level and I can do this on Sundays because we've been doing it on Fridays and Saturdays for a while."