WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK (August 6, 2017) - Dakoda Armstrong will be the first to admit that road course racing is not his forte with his lack of experience in turning both left and right. In the XFINITY first road course event of the season, Armstrong would continue to learn and gain experience as he piloted his No. 28 JGL Racing Toyota to a 21st place finish in the running of the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International.
"Today was another good learning experience for me and road course racing," said Armstrong. "It's just like anything else, the more you do it the better you get. I think I got better throughout the race for sure. The lack of cautions in the race kind of hurt us in being able to gain some track position as the field really got spread out there for a while. While we definitely wanted a better finish, I think this will help us as we head into another road course next week at Mid-Ohio."
Dakoda would start the 82-lap race in the 26th position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier on Saturday. As the green flag flew, Armstrong would fall back a little before finding a groove and inching towards the top-20 by lap 15. With varying pit strategy being utilized at the end of the first stage, the No. 28 Toyota would sit in the 17th spot at the conclusion of the stage.
The second stage would find Dakoda report that his No. 28 Toyota was a just a little tight in the corners and he was having to wait on getting back to the gas. Once again with pit strategy coming into play towards the end of the stage, Armstrong would find himself sitting in the 20th position at the end of the second stage.
The second half of the race would see Dakoda fight to gain track position as a long green flag run spread out the field. As in typical road course fashion, various pit strategies came into play which further jumbled up the field. A late caution finally allowed for the field to group back together with a three lap shoot out to the end. As the checkered flag flew, Dakoda and the No. 28 JGL Racing Toyota would be credited with the 21st place finish.
"I got into Ryan Sieg there in the closing laps as I wheel hopped it into turn one and I hate that," added Dakoda. "But we battled for everything today and again look to utilize this race to improve on road course racing with two more coming up here."
The 21st place finish kept Armstrong sitting in the ninth spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings - 42 points behind eighth place.
Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the running of the Mid-Ohio 200. The 21st race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday August 12th and can be seen LIVE on NBC Sports Network at 3:30 pm ET. It can also be heard on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.