Tyler Ankrum has impressed in both road course events this season and looks to continue that trend in his debut at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday afternoon. The driver of the No. 16 Weins Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro will sport a sharp navy and white color scheme and hopes to acquire his reservation into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs with two races remaining. Ankrum has earned two top-10 results at road courses this season and has displayed an affinity for the road racing discipline. The San Bernardino, Calif. native currently sits 12th in the championship standings and earning his first-career road course victory on Saturday would catapult him into the playoff mix.
Road Race Resume … Ankrum has made starts at five different road course venues over the span of his 81-race Camping World Trucks career and has recorded top-10 finishes at each track. In seven previous road course races, Ankrum has been rock solid by delivering one top-five and six top-10 finishes. His best result came in the inaugural event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in 2021 and earned his season best-finish of seventh there in March. He’ll look to make it six top-10’s at six road course venues and close the 50-point gap to the playoff cut line at Mid-Ohio.
Season to Date … After 14 of 16 regular season races, Ankrum is positioned 12th in the driver championship standings 50 markers behind the final spot on the provisional playoff grid. Ankrum has collected six top-10 finishes this season and is coming off a seventh-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway, which tied a season high. He enters Mid-Ohio on the strength of three-consecutive top-10 finishes for the first time since 2020.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the Weins Auto Group team have prepared chassis No. 015 for its third appearance of the season. Ankrum most recently earned a ninth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway by scoring a season-high 37 points in June. He also drove this Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to a seventh-place finish at COTA. Chassis No. 015 has been the No. 16 team’s primary road course truck over the past two seasons and went to victory lane at Watkins Glen International last season.
Tune In … FOX Sports 1’s coverage from Mid-Ohio begins with qualifying at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon. Race coverage starts at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon onm FS1 with the green flag flying at 1:30 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 16 Weins Auto Group team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
On the final road course race of the season:
“I’m really excited to get to Mid-Ohio. We’ve been really fast on road courses this year and felt like we were capable of winning at Sonoma last month. Running the Trans-Am race at Mid-Ohio a couple weeks ago was a big help to me with some extra track time, so hopefully that will allow us to get up to speed quickly in our Weins Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. We have some points to make up in a short amount of time, but I have confidence in our team that we can make a strong run at making the playoffs in these last two weeks, so this weekend is big opportunity for us.”
HRE PR
