Ankrum Keeps Gladiator Mentality Heading to Bristol at Point Leader
Venue: Bristol Motor Speedway
Event: Weather Guard Truck Race
Date: Saturday, March 16th
Location: Bristol, TN
Track Description: 0.533-mile oval
Distance: 250 laps, 133.25 miles (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, Motor Racing Network)
World’s Fastest Half Mile… After a week off, Tyler Ankrum continues to lead the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) field to the “World’s Fastest Half Mile”, Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS). The driver of the No. 18 Ullico Chevrolet Silverado RST still paces the NCTS points standings after an impressive second-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). With a five-point advantage over second, Ankrum plans to keep his lead and extend his career-best start to the season with an impressive showing at the “Last Great Colosseum”.
The New Look… Ankrum is heading into the weekend at BMS with a brand-new paint scheme. His No. 18 Chevrolet Silverado RST will feature the red, white, and blue colors of Ullico at BMS for the first of two appearances this season. With a new look, Ankrum is eager to find his way into victory lane at the 250-lap Weather Guard Truck Race. He has been knocking on the door to victory lane this season with the most laps led of all NCTS competitors thus far (62) and has an average finish of 6.7. Ankrum’s average finish is a reflection of the best season start in his career. His finishes of 11th, seventh, and second are career-high numbers through three races in his sixth NCTS season and has the third-highest average finish among full-time drivers.
Short Track History… Since the 2020 season, Ankrum has proven to be a threat at short tracks. He has earned top-10 results at four of the five short tracks currently on the NCTS schedule, including track-best finish of seventh on BMS’ concrete. He has also shown that he knows how to be out front at “Thunder Valley” with 53 laps led in the 2019 event en route to his first playoff berth. Ankrum is prepared to lead more this time around and increase his points lead once again.
Tune In … All on-track activity will take place on Saturday in “Thunder Valley”, beginning with practice and qualifying at 3:00 p.m. ET. NASCAR Raceday’s pre-race coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. ET followed by the green flag at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 18 Ullico team by following @BMR_NASCAR on Twitter, @bmrnascar on Instagram, and Bill McAnally Racing on Facebook.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
On How He Plans to Approach This Weekend:
“We are going to approach this race the same way we do every week. The goal is to get our Ullico Chevrolet to victory lane, and this team has been doing a great job of bringing fast trucks to the track. Bristol is such a cool racetrack. I think everyone enjoys going there. It’s become a really difficult place to pass and it’s a hard place to get track position. We’ve been qualifying well so far this year and we’d like to do that again to set ourselves up for another good run Saturday night.”