Ankrum Solidifies Top-Five at “The Glen” in Triple OT
Venue: Watkins Glen International
FINISH: 5th
Start: 13th
Stage One: 13th
Stage Two: 9th
Laps Led: 0
NCTS Point Standings Position: 7th
Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST battled his way through a thrilling triple overtime sequence to clinch a fifth-place finish at Watkins Glen International for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) event Friday evening. Ankrum put his truck 13th in line to start the 72 lap event in Friday afternoon’s qualifying run. The young driver was quick to jump up a few positions but reported to the team by lap six that he was starting to build really tight. A caution arose with nine laps left in Stage One and crew chief Mark Hillman made the call to bring the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet down pit road for four tires, fuel and a slight adjustment to help the tight handling on his race truck.
Pitting under the caution forced the San Bernardino, Calif. native back a few spots but he regained position and settled for a 13th-place Stage One finish. Ankrum felt better about his No. 18 truck but felt it was still a little tight. The team chose to stay out under the stage break and pick up a few more spots in the pit cycle. A quiet Stage Two allowed the driver to stay focused and find his rhythm until a yellow flag was in the air as teammate Jack Wood took a hard hit in the esses. Once the track was clean and clear, the field came to a green-white-checkered on the closing laps of Stage Two where Ankrum was able to dodge a spin on the restart and snag two spots for a ninth-place Stage Two result, gaining him two valuable stage points.
Hillman (Mark, crew chief) stuck with his strategy and stayed out to pull the young driver up to the second position to restart the final stage at Watkins Glen. A few laps in, Ankrum reported he was starting to feel a minor vibration in his race truck but eventually it subsided. A caution arose with 13 laps to go in the race and the driver of the 18 truck was told to save all the fuel he could as this yellow flag put him in a better fuel window. It soon became a flurry of yellow flags as the field started to cause chaos every chance they could, forcing the event in NASCAR’s version of overtime. The driver of the No. 18 made his way up to the fourth position for the restart and quickly rolled into third, until another spin occurred and Ankrum could tell he was running out of fuel fast.
The young driver was forced to pit road under caution to fill up on some Sunoco race fuel and snag a fresh set of Goodyear tires, sending the driver back to 13th in line to restart the second overtime green-white-checkered. More chaos broke out as the trucks sailed into Turn 1 and Ankrum made an incredible drive up to the seventh position with another caution coming out before the field could take the white flag. The chaos finally had come to an end after a triple over time run and the driver of the No. 18 drove his way into fifth at the checkers which ultimately bumped him up to seventh in the NCTS point standings to end his day in the Finger Lakes.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“What a whirlwind of a race, man. I was super bummed when we started to run out of fuel there because we had such great momentum but it ended up working out in our favor and we were still able to snag a top five finish today. We weren’t very good all day, ran top 15, top 10 really. We pulled some strategy there and our LIUNA crew did a great job at pushing us out front which is where we were really fast and had great pace. Huge thanks to Chevrolet and LIUNA and I am for sure ready to chill out after this one.”
