Catchfence

(September 13, 2010-Toledo, Ohio)— The 17th race of the 2010 ARCA Racing Series season at Toledo Speedway took place Sunday, with the running of the NW Ohio Ford Dealers 200. Dakoda Armstrong came into the event at the .5 mile speedway 6th in championship points. He and the team were hoping to tighten up the points battle. But Mother Nature took charge of the events on Saturday.

With just 40 minutes of the scheduled 1 ½ hour practice session completed, rain cancelled the remaining practice and the qualifying session. After posting the 9th quickest speed during the abbreviated practice and the starting lineup set based on car owner points, Armstrong started from the outside of the 3rd row, in 6th.

When the green flag flew, Armstrong moved quickly-moving into 4th by the 4th circuit and to 3rd on lap 14. On the first caution, at lap 41, Armstrong told crew chief, Paul Andrews that the #22 Ferrellgas / Syngenta Seeds Dodge was “a little tight.” By lap 65 Dakoda had fallen back to 5th, as the car got tighter. On the next caution, on lap 76, Andrews called Armstrong to pit road for 4 tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. With many of the leaders also making their pit stops during this caution, Armstrong restarted in 4th, on lap 84. The adjustments seem to work for Dakoda, as he moved to 3rd for 8 laps, before settling back into the 4th spot, following teammate Tom Hessert, Joey Coulter and Chris Buescher.

During the next caution, Andrews and Armstrong discussed the handling situation on the #22, with Andrews deciding to stay out on the track to take advantage of their track position. On the restart, Dakoda once again picked up 3rd, but fell back to 4th a handful of laps later. With 5 cars on the lead lap and Armstrong 5th, problems began happening for the Cunningham Motorsports teams. On lap 161, teammate Tom Hessert had a right front tire flat, which resulted in a broken sway bar arm.

20 laps after Tom’s initial problem, Dakoda also had a right front flat that ground the sway bar arm off. As a result of stopping on the track so that he didn’t hit the wall, with a flat right front tire, ARCA assessed Armstrong with a 2 lap penalty. With just 4 cars remaining on the lead lap, Armstrong hung on for the remaining 20 laps to finish in the 9th spot, 5 laps down.

Armstrong remains 6th in the championship points battle and seemingly in control of the Rookie of the Year award, at the top with 476 points to 438 for Nick Igdalsky in 2nd.

Next up for the Cunningham Motorsports team is the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA Fall Classic 200 at Salem Speedway, in Salem, Indiana on Saturday evening, September 18. The single practice is scheduled from 1:05-2:35pm EST, with qualifying following at 4:00. An on-track autograph session will take place at 4:45, with 200 laps of racing, under the lights, beginning at 7:15 pm EST.

Live coverage of all of the events at the .555 mile high-banked paved oval will be provided via www.arcaracing.com.

Follow Cunningham Motorsports on their official twitter page @cunningham_race