No. 43 Team Welcomes New Sponsor to NASCAR
A late race wreck at Watkins Glen last weekend cost Dakoda Armstrong a solid finish and widened the gap in the point standings. However the finish doesn’t tell the whole story. , Despite not having much road racing experience, Armstrong drove a fast pace throughout the race and has momentum going into the second consecutive road course race. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is the second of three road course races for the NASCAR XFINITY Series in 2015. Currently, Armstrong sits 12th in the XFINITY Series Championship Point Standings, 24 points outside of 11th place. Armstrong had a strong showing last year, his first and only start at Mid-Ohio, racing the WinField Ford Mustang to a 10th-place finish. This year, the No. 43 team welcomes a new sponsor, Sunrise Cooperative.
Sunrise Cooperative is a grain marketing and supply cooperative located in north central Ohio. Entirely farmer owned, Sunrise is a full-service cooperative with 3,200 member-owners and is operated by 185 dedicated employees. Specializing in true customer service, there are five grain facilities located in Clyde, Clarksfield and Crestline with a total storage capacity of over 27 million bushels. In addition, the cooperative also offers four full-service agronomy locations, a feed division and energy division that services 12 counties.
Dakoda will also be participating at the “Laps For Lunches” karting event Friday evening from 7:30PM to 8:30PM at the Columbus Grand Prix in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by returning associate sponsor E.E. Ward. E.E. Ward will donate at least 1,881 meals to local programs that help local families, matching the year E.E. Ward was founded. Fans will have the chance to race karts, meet Dakoda Armstrong, and have a chance to bid on items signed by Richard Petty, including one of his famous “Charlie Horse’ hats. All donations will be used to help feed families who don’t have adequate access to food.
“This course is very technical. There are places where you build a lot of speed with the long straightaway but the back half of the course is very slow. It puts a great demand on your handling, rhythm, and brakes. Last year I thought it would be my worse course but we ended up finishing 10th. It’s a track where survival is really important. It can quickly turn to chaos with the corners being so tight. We saw a lot of intensity during the Watkins Glen race last week and that course has a lot more room than Mid-Ohio. Ironically enough, it actually helps because the times are much closer from slowest to fastest because there’s only so much speed you can have before your overshooting the corners.”
“I’m proud to have our newest partner, Sunrise Cooperative, on the car this weekend. I know we’ll put on a great show for their folks. They’ve really been a huge asset to Ohio agriculture and offer a great amount of services and knowledge to farmers around the state. I’m also very excited to be a part of E.E. Ward’s Laps For Lunches event. We’re working together to fight food insecurity in the greater Columbus area. It’s going to be a great event.”
A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneur Andrew Murstein, is one of the most recognized brands in all of motorsports. With a history of over 200 wins and business partnerships with national and global leaders, today the race operation fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion with primary partners Smithfield Foods, U.S. Air Force, STP and Fresh From Florida, and Sam Hornish Jr. drives the No. 9 machine with primary partners Medallion Bank and Twisted Tea. In addition, Dakoda Armstrong wheels the No. 43 WinField Ford Mustang full-time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C.
