Fuel Pressure Issue Weighs Down Dover Result for Ankrum
| Venue: Dover Motor Speedway FINISH: 25th Start: 30th NCTS Point Standings Position: 10th |
| Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST relegated to a 25th-place finish after a tough battle with “The Monster Mile” Friday evening at Dover Motor Speedway. The young driver struggled with the handling on his race truck during the early-afternoon practice session that led to a sour qualifying result of 30th to start the 200-lap event. Ankrum was off to a solid start picking up spots in the back of the pack as he was up three positions by lap 10. The bad luck of the No. 18 team did not fail to arrive early as Ankrum came over the radio with 11 laps to go in the stage and reported that his fuel pressure dropped significantly, and he needed to come in. A quick stop for four tires and Sunoco race fuel sent the young driver back on his way to finish the stage 31st in line. Crew chief Mark Hillman brought the No. 18 Chevrolet down pit road under the stage break for a quick trackbar adjustment and allowed the crew to check all fuel lines and make sure everything was sealed up and working properly. The team quickly came to the conclusion that they were struggling with a fuel pick-up issue as the fuel pressure dropped once again at the end of Stage Two around the same number of laps as the first incident. Unfortunately for Ankrum, this ended up being an issue that he was going to have to limp around the 1-mile concrete oval for the remainder of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) event. Through a gaggle of cautions in the final stage, Hillman (Mark, crew chief) made sure to keep topping off on fuel and get through the run. This unfortunate incident forced Ankrum to a 25th-place finish at Dover and kicked him back one spot in the NCTS driver point standings to 10th as he heads into next weeks race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Tyler Ankrum Quote: “Not much to say about this one other than it is just truly unfortunate, once again. This sport is tough and we have bad days for sure but this is just not how we operate and it is really frustrating to have things go down like this week after week. Super thankful to have a partner like LIUNA that supports us through all of this and it was great to see everyone from the Eastern Region today. We will pick our heads up, capitalize on all that has happened and see what we got in Charlotte next week.” |