Driver will continue to pilot No. 43 in XFINITY Series
Richard Petty Motorsports announced Tuesday that it has re-signed Dakoda Armstrong as driver of the team's No. 43 Ford in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for 2015.
The team said that Frank Kerr, who was most recently paired with David Gilliland on the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 in the Sprint Cup Series, will serve as crew chief for Armstrong's second season at RPM. Kerr replaces Philippe Lopez, who has been promoted to operations manager for the Richard Petty-owned organization.
"I'm excited to continue racing for The King," Armstrong said in a statement released by the team. "Philippe and I had a good relationship and I feel like I learned a lot in my rookie season with the No. 43 team. I'm looking forward to continuing that growth into my second season. Now with Frankie (Kerr) coming on board I think we'll be able to get our communication more in sync. We both come from an open-wheel background and he can relate the open-wheel style of driving to the stock cars."
The team also announced that WinField will return as a primary sponsor for 23 of the 33 XFINITY races this season. The agricultural company based in Shoreview, Minnesota, is scheduled to mark its second year with the Petty team and its third season backing Armstrong at the NASCAR national series level.
Armstrong, 23, finished 13th last year in his first full season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, which now carries title sponsorship from Comcast's XFINITY brand. The Indiana native registered three top-10 finishes and notched a season highlight by winning the Coors Light Pole Award for the series' July race at Daytona International Speedway.
Kerr, who has been a regular atop the pit box in the Sprint Cup Series since 2007, enters his first full season at a crew chief in the XFINITY Series. The 54-year-old veteran served as crew chief for two of Marcos Ambrose's XFINITY victories at Watkins Glen International with the JTG-Daugherty Racing team.