Armstrong picked up speed during his qualifying run, with a 31.887, to start on the outside of row 4, in 8th. As the green flag flew, Armstrong picked up one spot. The caution was brought out on lap2 for a spin. When crew chief Paul Andrews asked Armstrong about his car, Armstrong commented, “The car is a little free, in both corners.” As the field restarted racing on lap 5, Armstrong fell back to 11th. During this extended green flag run, of 40 laps, Dakoda told Andrews that “the car is really loose getting off (the corners).
The final yellow flag flew on lap 86. During this caution, Armstrong told Andrews, “The car is not rotating in the center, at all. It did turn better at the start of the run than it is now.” Armstrong brought the Ferrellgas Dodge to pit road for 4 tires, fuel and to add a rubber to the right rear spring. The pit crew had problems getting the rubber into the spring and had to send Armstrong back on track, in order not to lose a lap. After making a couple more trips to pit road, Armstrong was ready to make his final attack on the field. After restarting in 12th, Armstrong picked up the 11th spot, with 6 laps remaining in the race.
After the race Armstrong commented, “We just couldn’t quite get the car right. We had moments when it felt pretty good. But, on the long runs we got too tight in the middle of the corners. Our car was just not the same as it was in the test here 9 days ago. We are looking forward to the season finale in Rockingham, where we started 6th and finished 8th last year, after leading the first laps of my ARCA career.”
The eleventh place finish dropped Armstrong to 7th in championship points, 55 points behind 4th place. Armstrong remains solidly in the lead of the RE/MAX Rookie of the Year award, which is a coveted award that is presented at the ARCA Racing Series banquet in December. Previous winners of this award include former Cunningham Motorsports teammate, Parker Kligerman, Frank Kimmel, Mark Gibson, Davey Allison, Bill Venturini, Benny Parsons, and Charlie Glotzbach. Some pretty fine company for the 19 year old.
Next up for the Cunningham Motorsports team is the 2010 ARCA Racing Series season finale at Rockingham Speedway, which is scheduled for Saturday, October 9. The American 200 presented by Black’s Tire & Auto Service weekend begins with an open test session on Thursday, October 7.
Practice for the 200 lap event is scheduled for Friday beginning at 11:30am EST. Qualifying will take place at 2:30, with the main event taking place Saturday at 1:30pm EST. The race will be covered live on SPEED. Live audio coverage and live timing and scoring of all track events will be available via the ARCA Racing Network at ARCARacing.com. Dakoda will attend an autograph session Thursday from 6-8 pm at the Thunderfest Street Party in downtown Rockingham.
Follow Cunningham Motorsports on their official twitter page:@cunningham_race
- Cunningham Motorsports Press Release
