Rain Washes Out Dover, Armstrong Takes 20th

Aside from battling “The Monster Mile” and the rest of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors, Dakoda Armstrong and the No. 98 EverFi Tundra team also faced threatening weather and undesirable handling conditions on Friday at Dover International Speedway. Much cooler weather rolled in on Friday for the running of the Lucas Oil 200 and changed the condition and feel of the one-mile concrete oval drastically from what it had been on Thursday for practice. After 147 laps of battle on the track, heavy rain rolled in and Armstrong was given a 20th place finish when the race was made official. 

 

Armstrong gained over one second from his fastest lap in practice on his qualifying lap Friday morning, placing him in the 19th starting position for the scheduled 200 lap main event. Optimistic about his EverFi Tundra after completing those qualifying laps, Armstrong’s thoughts about the handling of his No. 98 machine changed quickly after the drop of the green. Reporting to crew chief Dan Stillman that the truck was hitting the track pretty hard in the corners and then washing up the track, Armstrong was forced to hang to an ill-handling Toyota Tundra.

 

Stormy weather had danced around the Dover area for most of the afternoon with the first of the rain making its presence on Lap 112. Stillman was able to bring his driver down pit road after the first red flag was lifted to take another swing at the handling, which Armstrong readily reported had made his Tundra significantly better. However, the rain returned in full force after a few short laps of green flag racing and NASCAR made the Lucas Oil 200 official 53 laps shy of the scheduled distance. With just handful of green flag laps of racing to improve his position after the adjustments, Armstrong left with a 20th place finish.

 

“The EverFi team and Dan Stillman made a lot of adjustments today on our Tundra but we just couldn’t make it much better. The truck would bottom out pretty hard on entry and then wash up the track. I couldn’t get a run on anyone even if I was faster just because we were hurting so bad entering the corner,” Armstrong explained.

 

“Dover is just a tricky place; so fast and you have to make sure everything is right. The rain really didn’t help much either because we didn’t have a chance to see what our final changes would really do.”

 

DAPR