North Wilkesboro Deals 19th-Place Finish to Ankrum

Venue: North Wilkesboro Speedway

FINISH: 19th

Start: 24th

NCTS Point Standings Position: 11th

An uneventful day quickly turned to disappointment for Tyler Ankrum, the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST for McAnally Hilgemann Racing (MHR). The San Bernardino, Calif. native had a tough qualifying run Friday afternoon for the Faith Fest 250 that set him 24th in line to start the 250 lap event at North Wilkesboro Speedway (NWB) Saturday afternoon. The field stayed stagnant and a quick caution arose when an incident on the backstretch slowed the field but left Ankrum clear of any contact. The driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet came over the radio to report that he was a lot tighter than he was the day prior for practice and qualifying. The remaining laps of Stage One stayed green and the young driver scored a 24th-place finish.

Under the stage break, crew chief Mark Hillman called for a handful of adjustments to help the handling on the No. 18 along with four fresh tires and fuel. On the restart, Ankrum jumped up to 21st but fell back yet again as he struggled to get around the historic short track. Halfway through the second stage, a yellow flag flew and Ankrum relayed to his team that he had zero grip as the cloud coverage was starting to shift. A quick pit stop by the crew allowed the driver of the No. 18 to grab fresh set of Goodyear tires with a slight air pressure adjustment and a top off on Sunoco race fuel. The adjustments ended up sending Ankrum in the opposite direction and relegated him to a 20th-place Stage Two finish as he reported to Hillman (Mark, crew chief) that he was now “wrecking loose”.

Ankrum stayed out under the stage break which allowed him to restart the final laps of the day 15th in the field. The competition spread out early and the young driver found himself battling to stay on the lead lap along with many other competitors. More issues started to arise as the laps wound down and the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet held on strong for a 19th-place finish at NWB. This unfortunate finish bumped Ankrum back to 11th in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series point standings where he is now tied for the playoff cutline position with just three races remaining before “The Chase”.

Tyler Ankrum Quote:

It is truly never ending this season. We just did not have what we needed today to get a solid finish and we can’t have these days anymore. Being so close to the cutline and now on the cutline, we don’t have any room for errors and we will get this squared away and get back on the right track. I can’t thank everyone at LIUNA enough for the constant support, even with this season being so tough. It means a lot to myself and this team and we are going to get the results we deserve very soon. Onto IRP.”