Ankrum Seeks Short Track Victory at Richmond
Venue: Richmond Raceway
Event: eero 250
Date: Friday, August 15th
Location: Richmond, VA
Track Description: 0.75-mile D-shaped oval track
Distance: 250 laps, 187.5 miles (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, SiriusXM)
Short Track Redemption … Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST heads up to Richmond Raceway this weekend coming off the heels of a top-five finish at Watkins Glen International. The young driver powered through a multitude of late-race melees, picking up spots left and right to snag a fifth-place result at the wild road course. Ankrum has five previous starts at the 0.75-mile short track with a best of third coming back in 2021. The San Bernardino, Calif. native has scored two top-five and three top-10 results at Richmond in his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) career so far and is eager to get back and top those stats with his first victory at the D-shaped oval.
Season To Date … Heading into the last race of the regular season, the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing (MHR) currently sits in the seventh position in the NCTS point standings. Ankrum locked himself into the playoffs with a thrilling win at Rockingham Speedway back in April, breaking his 130-race winless streak. Shortly after, the No. 18 team started to fall back in the point standings after bad luck hit race after race, putting them in a gaggle of bad situations. The team finally broke back into momentum with a solid top-10 finish at Lime Rock and it continued on through IRP and Watkins Glen. The 24-year-old has tallied 11 straight top-10 finishes on short tracks and is looking forward to ticking that number one higher at Richmond this Friday night, under the lights.
Spoiler Highlights … Tyler Ankrum and the No. 18 team are excited to welcome aboard LIUNA local contractor Saiia to adorn the left-side spoiler of this weekend’s NCTS event at Richmond Raceway. Founded by Sam Saiia as Birmingham Excavating Co. in 1946, the company now known as Saiia is an industrial heavy civil contractor of choice for the power generation, mineral and aggregate mining, and pulp and paper markets. With more than 630 pieces of construction machinery in their fleet, over 500 employees, and experience working in 11 states, they have the resources and knowledge to complete projects of any scale. They specialize in several industrial services, from site development to maintenance, and sectors encompassing power generation, mineral and aggregate mining, and pulp and paper.
Tune In …Television coverage on the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event will begin Friday afternoon with practice starting at 2:05 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2, followed by green flag for the eero 250 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Stay connected with the No. 18 LIUNA team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“Felt really good to get a nice top-five finish last week at The Glen. That race was a roller coaster of emotions and it ended up working out for us in the end so super excited to hit Richmond this week and get back to a short track. Mark and the guys have put together a really stout short track package and there is no doubt in my mind that we can keep this momentum going and stay in contention to be up there for the win Friday night. Last race before the playoffs and although we are already locked in with a win, it most certainly does not mean we work any less. We will battle just as hard to finish out the regular season and prepare for the playoffs starting at Darlington.”