Dating back to his win in the ARCA Racing Series in 2010, Talladega Superspeedway has been a favorite place for Dakoda Armstrong but disaster always seems to plaque the New Castle, Indiana native. True to form, a cut tire in the closing laps on Saturday would take away a top-10 finish and force Dakoda and his No. 28 WinField United Toyota to settle for a disappointing 23rd place finish in the running of the Sparks Energy 300.
“That was a very disheartening finish out there today,” said Armstrong. “We managed our race and were able to avoid the two big wrecks to put ourselves in a position for a good finish. We must have run over something that cut the tire as we also had some debris through the nose of our No. 28 WinField United Toyota.”
Armstrong would start the 300-mile event from the 15th position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier in the day which showed he had a strong No. 28 WinField United Toyota.
Dakoda would manage his way through the draft and put himself in a position to avoid the first big accident at the end of the first stage and sit inside the top-10.
The second stage would find Armstrong ride inside the top-15 while he continued to take care of his No. 28 WinField United Toyota. Once again Dakoda was able to steer clear of a big accident that occurred at the end of the second stage.
After putting himself in a good position for the second half of the race, Dakoda would find himself in contention for a top-10 finish. However, disaster struck with only a handful of laps remaining when a cut right front tire would force the No. 28 WinField United Toyota to pit road with the result being a lost lap to the field. When the checkered flag flew, Dakoda would be relegated to a disappointing 23rd place finish.
“The guys on this JGL Racing team worked hard on this car and it showed today with how strong it was,” added Dakoda. “We just had a little bad luck hit us there at the end with the cut tire but we definitely were much better than our finish shows.”
The 23rd-place finish kept Armstrong sitting 11th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings – 19 points behind 10th place.
Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will enjoy a two week break before next heading to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the running of the Hisense 300. The 10th race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday May 27th and can be seen LIVE on FOX Sports1 at 1:00 pm ET. It can also be heard on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.
JGL Racing PR
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