DOVER, DE (May 16, 2016) - The one-mile oval referred to as the Monster Mile can be just that for NASCAR teams and drivers. Dakoda Armstrong battled it all day on Saturday and steered his No. 28 JGL Racing Toyota to a hard fought 21st-place finish in the running of the Ollie's Bargain Outlet 200 at the Dover International Speedway.
"We definitely fought hard for our finish out there today" said Armstrong. "Our car was really loose during the heat race and first part of the Main. We came down pit road that first time and made some changes and our car was totally different - tight really. I guess we just went a little too far on the changes."
With the Dover event being the third out of four Dash 4 Cash races, Dakoda would start in Heat 2 from the 12th position as a result of his qualifying effort earlier in the day. The Heat race would find the No. 28 Toyota dealing with a loose condition which prevented Armstrong from charging into the corner like he needed to. With some changes in a late heat race pit stop, the No. 28 Toyota seemed to be a little better heading into the 120-lap Main.
Starting from the 22nd position, Dakoda would maintain his track position as his car once again began to battle a loose condition the longer it ran. With changes made during their first pit stop of the Main making too drastic of a change to the No. 28 Toyota, Armstrong would battle to the end and narrowly miss out on a top-20 finish.
"We worked with a new crew chief this weekend and I think that went very well," added Dakoda. "While we would have liked a better finish than what we got - I do think this weekend was good from the standpoint of establishing good communication with my new crew chief (Wayne Setterington). I think this will all pay dividends going forward and I can't wait to get to Charlotte and work together more."
The 21st-place finish would keep Armstrong in the 16th position in the overall NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers' standings - 35 points of the top-12.
After a week off, Armstrong and his JGL Racing team will next head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the running of the Hisense 300. The 11th race of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season will be Saturday May 28th and can be seen LIVE on FoxSports1 at 2:00 pm ET. It can also be heard on Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM Channel 90.