Ankrum Gains Points with Second-Straight Rockingham Top-10
Venue: Rockingham Speedway
FINISH: 6th
Start: 13th
NCTS Point Standings Position: 11th
Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST rounded out his Friday afternoon with a solid top-10 finish at Rockingham Speedway in the 200-lap event. After wet-weather conditions cut the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) practice run by a few laps, the field was still able to qualify and Ankrum set his hot-rod 13th in line to start the Black’s Tire 200. The green flag fell and the competition shuffled quickly, sending the young driver three wide multiple times and ultimately settling him back in the 19th position.
Due to passing conditions being very poor, Ankrum was forced to a 19th-place finish in Stage One. Under the stage break, the driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet reported to his team that he was wrecking free in every aspect of his race truck. Crew chief Mark Hillman called for a rubber in the left rear, trackbar adjustment, four fresh tires and a few cans of Sunoco race fuel. Losing one spot on pit road to get all the adjustments needed, the No. 18 truck lined up 20th to restart Stage Two.
A few laps into the run, a quick caution came out. Ankrum reported back that the adjustments were feeling good and focus was set forward. Starting mid-pack in the field in dirty air was really taking a toll on the passing strategy for the No. 18. With a quiet and uneventful Stage Two run, the San Bernardino, Calif. native relegated to an 18th-place Stage Two finish. “The truck is really coming to me, it is just extremely difficult to pass here…”, stated the 25-year-old driver to his team. To gain some track position and clean air, Hillman (Mark, crew chief) called for right side tires only on the stage break stop along with a slight air pressure adjustment to tighten him up a tick and fuel.
Picking up 11 spots on pit road, Ankrum was set to start the final laps of the event seventh in line. With clear sights to the front, the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet held on inside the top 10 as his race truck was getting better by the lap. Another yellow flag fell with 35 laps to go as Ankrum sat in the sixth position. The team decided to come in and take four fresh Goodyear tires to set him up for the remainder of the run along with just one can of gas to keep the balance positive. After a hard-fought drive through the remainder of the 28 laps left on the board, Ankrum settled for a seventh-place run at Rockingham Speedway. Due to a failure at post-race tech in the top five, the No. 18 entry jumps up a spot to sixth for the official result.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“We had a decent run here today at The Rock, man, it was just so hard to pass. Getting stuck back in the pack at the beginning there really killed our time to pick up any spots. Mark (Hillman, crew chief) made a great call only taking two tires there on that second stop and my pit crew is just absolutely killing it every single week, gaining us spots left and right. It feels good to get back to the top 10 for a finish and we just need to stay consistent with it. Looking forward to Bristol next week, that is always a fun one to run.”
