Unfortunate Luck Strikes Again for Ankrum at The Glen
| Venue: Watkins Glen International FINISH: 17th Start: 18th Stage One: 5th Stage Two: 8th NCTS Point Standings Position: 9th |
| Unfortunate luck returns to the No. 18 bunch at Watkins Glen International as Tyler Ankrum settled for an unwarranted 17th-place finish at The Bully Hill 176 Friday evening. Starting in his qualifying run earlier in the day, the young driver was on track for a hot lap when he came up on a truck stopped in front of him and with little to no time left on the qualifying clock, he was stuck with an 18th-place qualifying result to start the day. Ankrum started to pick off spots where he could and was up five positions by lap 10. Crew chief Mark Hillman made the decision to stay out and not split the stage to gain the No. 18 some stage points. That plan had come to fruition and the San Bernardino, Calif. native finished out Stage One fifth where he was able to gain six very valuable stage points. Ankrum reported to his team under the stage break that he was leaning really hard on the front tires causing him to lose drive off completely. The No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet came down pit road for fresh Goodyear tires with an air pressure adjustment and some Sunoco race fuel. Restarting 13th in line, the field bunched up heading down the front straightaway into Turn 1 and the No. 18 got knocked out of line. Ankrum held position and was able to recover quickly from the shuffle back into 13th. Quickly came over the radio reporting he was nuclear tight. A quiet stage two allowed the young driver to settle in and focus forward where they chose the same strategy and stayed out to fight for top 10 position. As the green-flag pit cycle started to cycle, Ankrum was able to drive away with an eighth-place Stage Two finish. A solid pit stop for the crew allowed Ankrum to gather four tires and fuel along with a packer and trackbar adjustment to help the handling on his race truck. With 21 laps to go in the 72-lap event, knocking on the door off the top 10, the driver of the No. 18 came over the radio and reported he felt he just lost power steering. He quickly fell back to 25th where the team was hoping for a caution to come in and diagnose the issue. With 15 laps to go, a yellow flag dropped and caution was out. Ankrum rolled down pit road and the No.18 crew got to work under the hood to realize the pump had gone bad and it needed to be replaced. After multiple trips down pit road to fix power steering while trying to stay on the lead lap, the young driver rounded out the final laps and crossed the line 17th at Watkins Glen. Tyler Ankrum Quote: “Truly, its just unfortunate. We can’t seem to get in a consistent groove of solid days and its frustrating. We have a lot of work to do. Staying out and gaining some stage points helped a ton early on and allowed us to hold our 9th-place position in driver points but man this one stings. We will get back to the shop, pick our heads up and continue on to Dover next week.” |