Ankrum Stays Strong in Top-10 in Darlington Playoff Opener
Venue: Darlington Raceway
FINISH: 7th
Start: 10th
Stage 1: 6th
Stage 2: 7th
Laps Led: 0
NCTS Point Standings Position: 5th
Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST pulls out a stout finish in the first race of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) Playoffs at Darlington Raceway with a solid top-ten finish. Ankrum lined the No. 18 Chevrolet up 10th to start out the 147-lap event and was up on the throttle early after the green-flag, picking up spots left and right. With 24 laps to go in Stage One, the young driver reported to his team that he was lacking grip, free to fire off and his race truck was building pretty tight. Ankrum went on to battle for a sixth-place Stage One finish and crew chief Mark Hillman brought him down pit road under the stage break for four fresh tires, fuel and a slight air pressure adjustment. The No. 18 pit crew had a quick stop, allowing the San Bernardino, Calif. native to pick up two spots on pit road and restart the second stage fourth.
Ankrum had an unfortunate restart getting stuck in traffic and getting held up on the bottom that forced him to drop back to the eighth position. The young driver settled in and focus remained forward as he knew he had some work to do. The pack started to spread out and chaos was kept to a minimum which did not give Ankrum the chance to move forward in track position and settling for a seventh-place Stage Two finish. The driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet was still lacking rear grip and felt he was super free getting into Turn 1. Under the stage break, Ankrum came down pit road for another set of Goodyear tires, fuel and a slight adjustment to help the handling on his race truck. Another hot stop by the pit crew gained Ankrum one more spot on pit road to restart the closing laps.
Restarting in sixth, Ankrum stayed in line and settled in to start running some solid lap times. Spotter Kevin Hamlin reported to his driver that he was running lead lap times and just needed to keep his focus forward to gain more track position. A yellow flag fell with 20 laps to go in the Sober or Slammer 200 as Ankrum reported he is still lacking grip but the balance on his race truck feels really good. Hillman (Mark, crew chief) made the choice to bring the No. 18 down pit road four tires and fuel and sent him on his way to restart the final laps in third. Ankrum got stuck on the bottom again on the restart and fell back to eighth but fought back to see himself a seventh-place finish at Darlington. Todays finish keeps the young driver fifth in the NCTS playoff standings at 23 markers above the cutline heading into Bristol in a few short weeks.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“Great points day for this No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet and super proud of the performance by these guys today. Pit crew was on point, Mark and the guys gave me a great truck to work with all day long and the momentum is defiantly where we need it to be for the first race of the playoffs. Rough day on restarts for me and I just couldn’t really find my line all day but we were able to bounce back and capitalize on what we had for a nice top-ten finish. Looking forward to Bristol and we will take the same momentum we had here to the second race in the Round of 10.”
