BROWNSBURG, Ind. — Dakoda Armstrong hasn’t had the most reciprocal relationship with Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park over the years.
Since 2008, he’s raced five different types of car at the.686-mile paved oval, but had never achieved a victory.
The New Castle, Indiana racer’s time finally arrived during Thursday night’s USAC Silver Crown event when he swiftly moved from fourth starting position to the top spot within the first 10 laps. He led the remaining 91 circuits to capture his first IRP triumph.
“I love this place,” Armstrong exclaimed. “I’ve been coming here almost 18 years, off and on. I’ve always loved it, but it has not loved me. But finally, tonight, it gave us a little kiss of luck.”
The icing on the cake for Armstrong was that it occurred at the 69th running of the Hoosier Hundred, one of the most historic and prestigious races in American open wheel racing, and now Armstrong has his name on its win list.
“It’s just a historic event,” expressed Armstrong. “Since it moved to pavement, that became a checkmark for me to try to get one. The fact that we did it is awesome, especially here. I love this place, but I have not had the best luck. To finally put it all together after all these years, man, we finally did it.”
Starting from the outside of the second row, Armstrong momentarily bided his time as front row occupants C.J. Leary and Bobby Santos duked it out for the initial seven laps with the two swapping the lead four different times in that timeframe.
Santos led the opening lap before giving way to Leary on lap two. Santos hustled back to the front on lap three until Leary returned to the front on the seventh go around.
Meanwhile, Armstrong began to surge. First he ducked under Santos for second on the pylon in turn three. He stalked Leary for the next two laps until taking his shot in turn three on lap 10, as he dove to the bottom and stuck the pass. When all was said and done, it turned out to be the winning move at the wheel of his C & A Motorsports/Meristem – Armstrong Farms/Beast/Stanton Chevy No. 5.
“Normally, I like to ride, but man, these guys have been so good about setting a pace early, and then it gets late and your tires are burned and there’s nothing you can do with them,” Armstrong explained.
Throughout the first half of the race, the driver making the biggest move was Russ Gamester, who was making his record-extending 31st career Hoosier Hundred start dating back to 1989. Starting 18th, he had picked his way into the top five past defending series champion Justin Grant on lap 46. When fourth running Briggs Danner’s car went up in smoke on lap 55, Gamester moved up one more spot.
Armstrong had to contend with two sorts of challenges at the front of the pack. That being lapped traffic and second running Leary, who trailed Armstrong by 1.5 seconds, but was able to chip away and whittle the interval down to a half second as Armstrong attempted to weave his way in and around the backmarkers.
“C.J. would not leave me alone,” Armstrong stated. “(My spotter) kept telling me how far back he was. I didn’t want to drive the car that hard, but it kept taking it. This place is just so hard. I tell everyone all the time, this place is hard to get ahold of. But this thing was just a rocket all night.”
But every time Leary seemingly drew nearer to the lead, Armstrong thwarted all of it, keeping Leary behind him in the range of one to one-and-a-half seconds down to stretch. There was no waiting around for Armstrong on this night whether it was in the early stages or the latter stages of the race. If he saw a chance, he took it. Because it was all on him.
“We went so hard early,” Armstrong said. “I didn’t know how much tire I was going to have and I just didn’t have time to wait. He would capitalize sometimes if I was slow on passing. But we were good enough to get around all of them, and we made it work.”
As it turned out, Armstrong got around most of the field, lapping all but the top five finishers in the 100-lap race. Ultimately, Armstrong crossed the finish line 2.105 seconds ahead of runner-up Leary. Reigning Hoosier Hundred winner Tyler Roahrig took third with Gamester an impressive fourth and Grant fifth.
USAC Silver Crown Championship, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Brownsburg, Indiana, June 25, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-20.962; 2. Bobby Santos, 98, DJ-21.124; 3. Briggs Danner, 77, Doran/Swanson-21.160; 4. Dakoda Armstrong, 5, C & A-21.205; 5. Tyler Roahrig, 41, Newman-21.206; 6. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-21.293; 7. Kyle Hamilton, 6, Klatt-21.368; 8. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-21.407; 9. Davey Hamilton Jr., 14, Hamilton/DB-21.408; 10. Nathan Byrd, 40, Meyer/Byrd-21.431; 11. Colton Bettis, 26, Pierce-21.563; 12. Jackson Macenko, 124, Hayes-21.611; 13. Chelby Hinton, 80, Breidinger-21.641; 14. Jake Trainor, 126, Pierce-21.748; 15. Kaylee Bryson, 11, Abacus/Droplight-21.850; 16. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-22.121; 17. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-22.290; 18. Kevin Studley, 57, Studley-22.337; 19. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-23.542; 20. Robert Tyler, 75, Tyler-23.717; 21. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-NT; 22. Ryan Newman, 92, Kazmark-NT; 23. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Dakoda Armstrong (4), 2. C.J. Leary (1), 3. Tyler Roahrig (5), 4. Russ Gamester (18), 5. Justin Grant (6), 6. Bobby Santos (2), 7. Mario Clouser (8), 8. Davey Hamilton Jr. (9), 9. Chelby Hinton (13), 10. Colton Bettis (11), 11. Nathan Byrd (10), 12. Kaylee Bryson (14), 13. Brian Tyler (15), 14. Jackson Macenko (12), 15. Gregg Cory (21), 16. Robert Tyler (20), 17. Briggs Danner (3), 18. Kyle Hamilton (7), 19. Dave Berkheimer (22), 20. Kevin Studley (17), 21. Ryan Newman (23), 22. Jake Trainor (19), 23. Kyle Steffens (16). 40:48.815