Bristol Motor Speedway has not been kind to Dakoda Armstrong in his previous visits and Friday night was no different. Coming off a top-10 finish last week at Mid-Ohio, Armstrong would falter in Thunder Valley as he posted a disappointing 24th place finish in the running of the Food City 300.
“This was definitely not one of our better performances of the season,” said Armstrong. “Bristol is a challenging track and one that has given me fits over the years. After qualifying I thought we had a pretty good No. 28 WinField United Toyota but I struggled with it being a little too tight for me. We battled all night and in typical fashion were able to keep our nose clean for the most part.”
Dakoda would start the 300-lap race in the 21st position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier on Friday afternoon. As the green flag flew, Armstrong would slowly fall through the field as he reported that his No. 28 WinField United Toyota was just too tight in traffic. As a result, the New Castle, Indiana native would lose a lap to the leaders and sit in the 26th spot as the first stage can to an end on lap 85.
The second stage would find Dakoda continue to struggle with the tight condition as well as the demanding half mile track. As he lost another lap to the field, Dakoda would settle into the 25th
position at the end of the stage.
With no much changing in the last portion of the event, Armstrong would keep the nose of his No. 28 WinField United Toyota clean and avoid a few on track incidents. As the book closed on another eventful race at Bristol, Dakoda would take the checkered flag and be credited with a season worst finish of 24th.
“Just another frustrating Bristol race for me,” added Dakoda. “We remain focused on this points battle and doing all we can to make the playoffs. We have another road course race next week and we turn our focus to that and on rebounding from Bristol.”
The 24th place finish dropped Armstrong to the 10th spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings – 10 points behind ninth place.
Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Road America for the running of the Johnsonville 180. The 23rd race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Sunday August 27th and can be seen LIVE on NBC at 3:00 pm ET. It can also be heard on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.
JGL Racing PR
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