Ankrum Takes Best-In-Show at Darlington with 26th-Place Result

Venue: Darlington Raceway

FINISH: 26th

Start: 24th

Laps Led: 0

NCTS Point Standings Position: 7th

Tyler Ankrum sits seventh in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) points standings after his night at Darlington Raceway. He has a total of 275 points and is only one marker back from sixth place. Ankrum finished his dance at Darlington in 26th position after being collected in a collision in Stage 2.

Ankrum began his night at the track “Too Tough To Tame” in 24th-place. The driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST was dressed to impressed with his throwback scheme representing Russ Wheeler from the iconic movie Days of Thunder. Ankrum was voted by the fans for having the best throwback paint scheme of the night. After his push forward, Ankrum finished Stage 1 on lap 45 in 13th-place.

Ankrum made his first appearance to pit road under the stage caution to receive four tires and fuel. Stage 2 started on lap 54, with Ankrum restarting in 13th position. By lap 76, he found himself in a race high of 12th-place until disaster struck. Ankrum was collected in collision in Turn 4 causing significant damage to the front end of his truck. Crew chief Mark Hillman and the MHR team brought Ankrum to pit road to assess the damages. He made several more pit stops to fix recurring front end issues for the remainder of the night trying to salvage any points possible. Ankrum took the checkered flag 26th, 14 laps down.

Tyler Ankrum Quote:

”We didn’t have a great qualifying time, so we had our work cut out for us. We were getting into a groove and finding our way forward throughout the first two stages. Unfortunately we got squeezed in the fence off Turn 4 and caught up in some other people’s mess. Our LIUNA team stayed with it all night and tried to make the best repairs we could and at salvage some points.”