Armstrong Looks to Continue Closing the Points Gap
Last week in Charlotte, Dakoda Armstrong and the No. 43 WinField team lost a potential Top-10 finish due to a mishap on pit road. While bad luck is part of racing, the team showed great speed and left Charlotte encouraged. This week, the team heads to Kansas Speedway. Only three years removed since the repave, the racing surface is still relatively new and full of grip. While Armstrong prefers a slick racing surface, the recent improvements in the teams’ mile-and-a-half program has the Indiana native eager to get to the race track.
The WinField team has their sights sets on regaining 11th place in the point standing, their highest points ranking of the season. Armstrong was able to make a four point dent in the gap at Charlotte. Only 16 points separate 11th place from 14th place in the points standings. Currently, Armstrong sits 14th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship Point Standings, just four points outside of 13th.
Armstrong has a total of five starts at the track in different racing series, including two starts in the XFINITY Series and two starts in the Camping World Truck Series. His best finish of 11th place came from an ARCA start in 2010. As an organization, RPM has three XFINITY Series starts at Kansas with an average finish of 15th. Their best effort was an 8th place finish in 2012.
“Kansas is a fast track with a lot of grip. You can run wide open through the corner. The car has to have good balance and side bite to really charge the corner. Passing can be tough here so you’ll see a lot of different strategies throughout the race to keep good track position. Our mile-and-a-half program has improved each week. With all the grip in the surface, you race this track differently than places like Kentucky or Charlotte. We have some stuff in our notebook that will transfer over. We have to make sure to make good adjustments and have clean stops on pit road. We’re all expecting to run well here.”
No. 43 WinField Ford
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.
