Tyler Ankrum gained two positions in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings after scoring a seventh-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday night. The driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro moved to 12th in the championship standings by tying his season-best result and earned his third straight top-10 finish. Ankrum also moved to within 50 markers of the playoff cutline with two regular season races remaining.
The San Bernardino, Calif. native began the evening from the 16th position and stepped forward from the drop of the green flag. Despite a tight handling condition, Ankrum moved to 13th position by lap 17. He radioed to the LIUNA team that his balance was beginning to free up, but still required an adjustment for being too tight. He ran 14th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 45 and came to pit road for four tires, fuel, wedge and air pressure adjustments under the caution period.
When Stage 2 restarted on lap 54, Ankrum lined up 12th but continued to battle a tight balance. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli elected to take advantage of a caution on lap 69 to activate an alternate pit strategy. He brought Ankrum to pit road for fresh tires, which ultimately provided a net gain and allowed him to climb to 13th by the end of the stage on lap 95.
The HRE pit crew produced another strong four tire pit stop under the Stage 2 caution and allowed Ankrum to restart 12th. Zipadelli called Ankrum to pit road for the final time under a lap 119 caution as Ankrum ran in 16th position. The shrewd pit call allowed Ankrum to play “offense” in the final 26 laps with fresh tires. He restarted 14th on lap 125 and cracked the top 10 on lap 127. Ankrum lined up eighth for the final restart and took full advantage to take the checkered flag in seventh for his third consecutive top-10 finish, which tied a career high mark.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“We got back up there because of strategy honestly. Somewhere in the third stage, we were running 10th to 15th and came in and pitted. We got back into the top-10 and finished seventh. We just battled back and forth all night long. It was a really difficult race, probably one of the races we had to work the hardest to get back towards the front. Really good recovery with our LIUNA Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, so it was a good night for this team. We’re getting better and better every week I’m really excited to head to Mid-Ohio, and we’ll get back to work on Monday.”
HRE PR
