Dakoda Armstrong NCWTS Post Race Report- Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Making his first career start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, Dakoda Armstrong hoped for first-time luck to carry him to a much-needed solid finish in the 17th race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. Rolling the dice with a newly rebuilt WinField Silverado, crew chief Doug George and the Turn One Racing team began race day on Saturday behind the curve after discovering an issue with the right front fender that would require extensive repair and take away nearly the entire first practice session. Recovering from the repairs, Armstrong began the Smith’s 350 from the 20th position and maintained a clean race; safely evading all nine cautions for incidents throughout the night and pulling through in the closing laps to come home 16th. 

With little practice time to dial in the speed Armstrong needed to run with the lead pack, the No. 60 crew had extensive work to do during the 146-lap main event. After starting from outside row 10, Armstrong moved forward to run just inside the top-20 for the first three-quarters of the evening. Pleased with the drivability of his Silverado but not the speed off the corner and down the straightaways, Armstrong and George collaborated on changes to make during each of their seven pit stops. Several attempts to utilize pit strategy and gain track position helped Armstrong get to the front for a portion of the evening, but changing track temperatures made an already ill-handling truck much worse for the 22-year-old driver. 

Though Armstrong was not able to receive the speed he needed to race to the front, he capitalized on his heads-up racing skills and quick reactions to dodge several incidents that unfolded in front of him throughout the event. Taking advantage of a scramble on the final restart with two to go, Armstrong dodged several competitors and pushed his way forward to a 16th place finish; gaining nearly five positions in the final lap.

Quotes:

“We started our weekend off behind due to some issues with the new body on this truck, and though it wasn’t from lack of effort, we never fully recovered from that,” Armstrong noted. “This WinField team has had a lot of obstacles thrown in our way, but we’re not giving up on the rest of this season. We’ll regroup in the off weeks coming up and give it all we can for the final five races.”

Dakoda Armstrong PR