NEWTON, IOWA (July 30, 2017) - After registering fifth place finishes in his last two visits to Iowa Speedway, Dakoda Armstrong entered Saturday's NASCAR XFINTIY Series event with his sights set on bettering those finishes. Unfortunately, Armstrong and his No. 28 WinField United Toyota just weren't as strong as the previous two outings and the New Castle, Indiana native would settle for a disappointing 17th place finish in the running of the US Cellular 250 at the Newton, Iowa track.
"That was a very frustrating day," said Armstrong. "Our No. 28 WinField United Toyota was pretty good most of the day but it was just so hard to pass out there. We could run the bottom better than I think anyone but we just couldn't keep our momentum enough to complete passes coming off the corner. We put some scuffs on there at that last caution for the 20 lap sprint to the finish hoping to gain on something, but we were just too loose there at the end."
Dakoda would start the 250-lap race in the 20th position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier on Saturday. The early stages of the US Cellular 250 would show right away that track position was very crucial. Armstrong and his No. 28 WinField United Toyota would fight throughout the first 60 lap stage of the event gaining a few precious spots and sitting 18th at the end of the stage.
The second stage would see much of the same action with Dakoda utilizing the low side of the track and battle to gain spots on the field. As the second stage came to end on lap 120, the No. 28 WinField United Toyota would sit in the 19th position.
The second half of the race would continue to see track position hard to come by and passing at a premium. Dakoda would continue to battle and slide inside the top-15 in the last 50 laps of the race. The development of a loose condition on the No. 28 WinField United in the closing laps would cost Armstrong a few spots and he would take the checkered flag in the 17th position - his 16th top-20 finish of the season.
"This 17th place finish was one that really hurts," added Dakoda. "We had such high expectations coming into this race after our last two finishes here and things just didn't work out for us.
I want to thank everyone for the hard work and we will keep our heads up and focus on some road course racing."
The 17th place finish kept Armstrong sitting in the ninth spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings - 36 points behind eighth place.
Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Watkins Glen International for the running of the Zippo 200. The 20th race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday August 5th and can be seen LIVE on NBC Sports Network at 2:00 pm ET. It can also be heard on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.