DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA (February 26, 2017) - Dakoda Armstrong once again showed his ability to avoid major disaster at Daytona International Speedway as the NASCAR XFINITY Series kicked off its 2017 season.  Armstrong safely piloted his No. 28 WinField United Toyota to top-10 finishes in the first two segments of the newly implemented race format and ultimately took the checkered flag in the 12th position in the running of the PowerShares QQQ 300 at "The World Center of Speed".

"Well that was a wild race and thankfully I was able to miss all of the wrecks until right after we took the checkered flag," said Armstrong.  "This new racing format and package we raced for the first time made it interesting.  Our No. 28 WinField Toyota was strong all weekend and it felt good to get back behind the wheel of it.  We should have had a better finish there at the end but sometimes its hard to choose who you want to go with and which line to fall into.  In all, not a bad start to the 2017 season."

Dakoda would start the scheduled 120-lap event from the 23rd position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier in the day.  The New Castle, Indiana native would patiently work his way through traffic in the early stages of the event and slowly move forward in the field.  Armstrong showed his ability to navigate traffic and avoid major wrecks as he put himself in position to avoid two major wrecks in the first segment and finish in the eighth position to gain three valuable bonus points.

The second race segment would see the No. 28 WinField Toyota slide up into the lead pack and ride inside the top-10 for most of the 30 laps.  Dakoda radioed to his crew that he was much better staying in the top groove and he did that as he once again avoided a few wrecks around him and finished in the eighth spot for the second straight segment.

The last half of the race would continue to see some wild action as Armstrong remained inside the top-10 until late action would shuffle him back in the field.  A late charge in the closing laps would see the No. 28 WinField United Toyota close back in on the top-10 before crossing the finish line in 12th.  Dakoda did a masterful job all day in avoiding the multiple wrecks but as he crossed the finish line he would be collected in one last melee resulting in significant damage to the No. 28 Toyota.

"We kept our car clean all day until right there at the finish line," added Dakoda.  "The JGL Racing organization worked hard over the winter and the fact that we had two strong cars here today showed just that.  I want to thank all of my guys for a great effort and I look forward to getting to Atlanta next week."

The 12th-place finish along with the two eighth place finishes in the first two segments has Armstrong sitting tied for fourth in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings.

Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the running of the Rinnai 250.  The 2nd race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday March 4th and can be seen LIVE on FOX Sports 1 at 2:00 pm ET.  It can also be heard on Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.