RICHMOND, VA. (September 10, 2017) -  With the NASCAR XFINITY Series season ending playoffs just two races away, Dakoda Armstrong finds himself on the outside looking in.  After enduring going to the rear of the 40-car field on three separate occasions, Armstrong would pilot his No. 28 JGL Racing Toyota to a hard fought 18th place finish in the running of the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at Richmond Raceway.

"Well that was a crazy day for sure," said Armstrong.  "We got into the wall on our first lap of practice so we didn't get much track time.  We struggled in qualifying with some mechanical issues so we had to fix them and go the rear at the start of the race.  But the guys on this JGL Racing team fixed up our No. 28 Toyota and it was very good during the race.  We received the Lucky Dog award twice during the race but each time we had to start from the end of the field and never could get a timely caution that allowed us to close back up on the field."

With much anticipation of the new composite body car debuting in the XFINITY Series at Richmond Raceway, Armstrong would test its durability after making contact with the wall on his first lap of practice.  With limited practice time, Dakoda and his No. 28 would experience mechanical issues during qualifying which would force repairs and the starting of the race from the rear of the field.  However, it didn't take long to show that the proper repairs were made as Armstrong charged forward in the field along with a Lucky Dog award at the end of the first stage that had him sitting in the 20th position.

The second stage would start with Armstrong going to the rear of the field and picking up a few spots during a caution free stage.   Dakoda would receive his second Lucky Dog of the night award at the end of the stage and sit in the 19th  spot.

As Armstrong once again would go to the rear of the field, he would maintain his track position as the remaining 100 laps of the event went caution free.  When the checkered flag flew, Dakoda would earn his 18th  top-20 finish of the season.

"A rough day but I gave it all I could," added Dakoda.  "The guys on this JGL Racing team worked hard all day to first repair damage from practice and then the mechanical issues after qualifying.  Their hard work showed as we had a pretty fast No. 28 Toyota - we just couldn't get the track position or timely caution we needed."

The 18th place finish kept Armstrong in the 12th spot in the NASCAR XFINITY Series overall driver standings - 25 points behind 11th place.

Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Chicagoland Speedway for the running of the Chicagoland 300.  The 26th race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday September 16th 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.