Ankrum’s Strong Night in Nashville Ends in 17th
Venue: Nashville Superspeedway
FINISH: 17th
Start: 8th
Stage One: 7th
Stage Two: 11th
Laps Led: 0
NCTS Point Standings Position: 4th
Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 Ullico Chevrolet Silverado RST was poised for a solid finish Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway until a few hiccups set him back for a 17th-place result at the concrete tri-oval. With another rained-out qualifying session, NASCAR’s rulebook set Ankrum to start the night in eighth. The green flag was out and chaos broke out instantly as Ankrum got shoved three wide heading into Turn 1 and the green-flag shuffle quickly turned into a yellow flag as the first caution of the night arose. The young driver reported to the team he was a little free but expected that on the opening laps. Restarting in the seventh position, the field panned out and with 10 laps remaining. Ankrum held on to gain three valuable stage points, finishing Stage One seventh.
The driver of the No. 18 Ullico Chevrolet came down pit road for four tires, fuel and a slight trackbar adjustment that sent him out to restart Stage Two, eighth. As the laps went on, the San Bernardino, Calif. native reported to his team that he was super loose in the center with 20 laps to go in the stage as he fell back to 11th in line where he finished Stage Two. Crew chief Mark Hillman brought his driver down pit road for four tires, fuel and an adjustment combination that consisted of wedge and air pressure. An unfortunate slow stop caused Ankrum to lose multiple spots on pit road and saw him restarting the final stage mid-pack in 18th.
The field spread out almost instantly in the remaining laps, making it difficult to make any passes or moves for track position which led to an unfortunate 17th-place finish for the No. 18 at Nashville. With Friday night’s result, Ankrum still holds the fourth spot in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series point standings at 160 markers behind the leader as they head into Race 13 at Michigan International Speedway next weekend.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“Just was not our night tonight but we had a really fast No. 18 Ullico Chevrolet and super happy to have everyone from Ullico out tonight. This track is super difficult to make it to the front if you don’t start out there and then our pit stop at the end of Stage Two set us back even further so we will take tonight, learn from it and move on to the next one at Michigan.”
