It’s go-time for Tyler Ankrum as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season comes to a close on Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. The driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro sits in 12th position in the championship standings, vying for one of the 10 coveted positions in the playoff field and enters Pocono 46 points behind the cut line. Ankrum can assure himself of a playoff berth with a victory, but is mathematically still alive to point his way in. If there’s a venue on the schedule that Ankrum and the No. 16 HRE team can produce a buzzer-beating clutch performance, it’s Pocono. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the No. 16 team have delivered three top-five finishes and have one pole award in the last five visits to the 2.5-mile triangle.
Tricky Treats … Racing at the Tricky Triangle has been nothing but a treat for Ankrum in his three visits to the Pocono Mountains. The Californian’s debut on the most unique oval on the circuit resulted in a runner-up finish in 2019 and has tallied results of ninth and fourth in 2020 and 2021, respectively. His average finish of 5.0 at Pocono is the second highest of all tracks that he’s competed at and looks to parlay HRE’s past performance into his third playoff appearance.
Season to Date … Through 15 of the 16 regular season events, Ankrum sits 12th in the championship standings and has earned six top-10 finishes. He’s delivered two seventh-place finishes at Circuit of the Americas and Nashville Superspeedway and has an average finish of 16.0.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the LIUNA team are bringing chassis No. 007 back into action. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro made its debut at Pocono in 2017 and has arguably been the most successful chassis in the HRE fleet, including four victories. Ankrum most recently piloted this piece at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
Tune In … FOX Sports 1 will have live coverage from Pocono beginning on Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET with practice and qualifying. Coverage continues Saturday on FOX beginning with NASCAR Raceday at 11:30 a.m. ET followed by the green flag at Noon ET. Stay connected with the No. 16 LIUNA team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
On his outlook entering the regular season finale:
“We have a lot of ground to try and make up on Saturday, and the best way to do that is to get our LIUNA Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to victory lane. I know we’re capable of it and Pocono has always been a good place for myself and this race team. It’s such a short race with it only being 60 laps, so pit strategy and track position are going to be extremely critical. Hopefully we’ll have plenty of speed and the track position to go with it and can put ourselves in the right spot to pull out a walk-off and get ourselves into the playoffs.”
HRE PR
