Armstrong Regains 500 Tour Points Lead With Salem Win
By: Koty Geyer
Armstrong Regains 500 Tour Points Lead With Salem Win
Dakoda Armstrong’s second 500 Sprint Car Tour win of the season came in emphatic fashion, leading all 50 laps en route to the win in the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial Presented By The Hoosier Lottery And Earl’s Of Indy at Salem Speedway.
The former NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series driver took advantage of a misstep from polesitter Jackson Macenko at the opening green flag and took the lead from the outside front row at the onset of the race. He staved off an early charge from defending Salem winner Taylor Ferns before pulling away in the latter stages of the race.
It’s Armstrong’s fourth career 500 Sprint Car Tour victory and first away from Anderson Speedway. It’s also his first win driving for Randy Neal, the same team that cousin Caleb Armstrong won the Little 500 with in 2024. However, he has visited Salem Speedway victory lane before – he won an ARCA Menards Series event at the high-banked oval in 2010.
“It’s amazing to be able to get a race win at somewhere other than Anderson. We’ve worked so hard,” Armstrong said on the DirtVision broadcast. “I thought the start was going to be the most important part and (Jackson Macenko) actually beat me to the line there but it seemed like he couldn’t get it into gear and I beat him to the line. I wasn’t sure how hard to push it. I saw (Taylor Ferns) peek one time early and I was kind of hanging on.”
With the win, Armstrong regains the 500 Sprint Car Tour points lead with two races left in the season. He kicked off the season by winning at Anderson in April and briefly lost the points lead midsummer, but now sits in the catbird seat with races at Anderson and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park left to go.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m getting old. This place, just running out there by yourself beat me up. This is a fast place and everyone’s putting in a lot of effort and their lives on the line here running these fast places in these cars they love. We did everything we needed to do. I still need to improve on qualifying a little bit to match Swanson there. Every time we come to these tracks everyone is so fast. I figured it would be hard to pass with how competitive everyone is in these Sprint Cars.”
The 500 Sprint Car Tour heads back home to Anderson Speedway for the Tony Elliott Classic on Saturday, October 4, the penultimate race of the 2025 season.
Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial Results
1. Dakoda Armstrong
2. Taylor Ferns
3. Bobby Santos III
4. Kody Swanson
5. Jackson Macenko
6. Justin Harper
7. Nathan Byrd
8. Tony Main
9. Billy Wease
10. Kyle O’Gara
11. Kevin Shelbo
12. Brady Allum
13. Shane Butler
