No. 43 WinField Team Hopes for Top-10 Finish at Final Road Course Stop of the Year
Last week in Bristol, late race contact put a damper on the hopes for a good run for Dakoda Armstrong. This week, the No. 43 WinField team heads to Road America looking to end a tough month with a good finish. Last year, during his first start at the track, Armstrong had a promising day go sour when a rain assisted off-track excursion heavily damaged the WinField Ford. Historically, RPM has had strong runs at Road America in each of its three starts, before rain or accidents changed the course of their race.
Crew Chief Frankie Kerr used the notebook from prior years to create the setup, as this weekend will be his first race at the famous Elkhart Lake course. Kerr is no stranger to road course success, with two XFINITY Series wins at Montreal and Watkins Glen. Currently, Armstrong sits 13th in the XFINITY Series Championship Point Standings.
Armstrong has just one start at the 4.048 mile course, with a Top-25 finish in the rain soaked race in the 2014 XFINITY Series event. This weekend will mark his sixth road course start in his XFINITY Series career. His best road course effort so far was a 10th-place finish at Mid-Ohio last year.
“We’re looking forward to coming to Road America. We had a good run last year before the rain showed up. Hopefully, we’ll stay nice and dry this year. This is a really long track with a lot of character. It takes a little bit to memorize the course since it’s so long. Since there is only 45 laps, you really have to put an emphasis on staying out of trouble and finding a fast pace early. The guys at the shop saved our best road course car for this race. They spent a lot of time on the setup. We’ve had a tough month of August. A good finish here would do a lot for us moving forward through the rest of the season.”
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.
