Dakoda Armstrong and the Fresh From Florida team finished 19th in Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. After starting the 200-lap race from the 27th position, the Fresh From Florida team, led by Crew Chief Philippe Lopez, worked on the handling of the No. 43 Ford throughout the race and gained eight positions to cross the finish line 19th.
With only 25 laps into the race before the first caution, Armstrong didn't have much time to make up the ground from his starting position. He was in the 28th position when the yellow-flag waved on Lap 25 for a spin in Turn Two. Armstrong reported to Lopez that the No. 43 Ford was losing grip and the car was too free to make the arc in the turns that most of the field was able to do. Lopez called for four tires, air pressure and trackbar adjustments and fuel. The Fresh From Florida crew gained some positions on pit road, and Armstrong restarted in the 25th position on Lap 29.
Armstrong maintained position in the mid-20s before he reported on Lap 77 that the No. 43 Ford was too tight in clean air but pretty loose in dirty air. As green-flag pit stops began, Armstrong gave up the fourth position on Lap 85 to come to pit road for four tires, an air pressure adjustment and fuel. Just as Armstrong returned to the track, NASCAR Officials called a caution for debris in Turn Three. He stayed on the track during the caution to restart 21st on Lap 93.
Shortly after the restart, Armstrong reported the No. 43 Ford was struggling over the bumps and getting tighter. On Lap 125, he radioed that the Fresh From Florida Ford was numb on entry. With another long green-flag run, the field made another round of green-flag pit stops, and Lopez called the No. 43 Ford to pit road on Lap 143. To fix the tight conditions, he called for four tires, air pressure and wedge adjustments and fuel.
After returning to the track, Armstrong was running in the 20th position when the final caution of the race came on Lap 171. The lead lap cars made their way to pit road, but Armstrong stayed on the track to take the wave around. He restarted in the 20th position with 26 laps to go.
Armstrong gained one spot in the closing laps to cross the finish line in the 19th position. The top-20 finish kept Armstrong in 14th place in the Championship point standings.
"That wasn't what we were looking for," said Armstrong. "It started with qualifying, starting 27th you have a lot of ground to make up. Philippe (Lopez) and the crew worked on the car during the race, and we had some pretty good runs but to me it felt like the car would fall off later in the runs. Towards the end of the race, the car started to feel numb on entry, so I'm not sure if we were hitting the splitter the second half of the race and that had some effect on the handling or not, especially over the bumps. We'll continue to work on it and come back with what we learned at the next mile-and-a-half."
The NNS team at Richard Petty Motorsports will return to action next week at Dover International Speedway on Saturday, May 31st. The Buckle Up 200 will be televised live on ESPN.
About Richard Petty Motorsports:
A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneurs Andrew Murstein and Douglas Bergeron, 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, Strike Ten Entertainment and Fresh From Florida, and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with primary partners STANLEY, DEWALT, Mac Tools and Twisted Tea. In addition, Dakoda Armstrong wheels the No. 43 WinField Ford Mustang full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team is headquartered in Concord, N.C.