Tundra Playoff drivers Tyler Ankrum and Austin Hill were made available to media at Martinsville Speedway:
AUSTIN HILL, No. 16 Ibaraki Toyopet Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Is staying out of trouble here at Martinsville the only real difficulty at the track?
“Qualifying is huge. We felt like we had decent speed in our qualifying run that we did today. We didn’t do full tape or anything, so we didn’t do a full mock-run, but we felt really confident with how we ended practice today. First practice we were really far off and we got it better throughout the day – got it turning better. For whatever reason, I don’t know if it’s the track or what, but we were just really tight all day. We got it better. I think qualifying is huge here. I think if you can qualify inside the top 10 and get stage points – stage points are always key with this Playoff stuff. Stage 1 and 2, our number one goal is to get the max stage points we possibly can and then obviously if we have to play a little bit at the end of the race to try to get a win, then that’s what we’re obviously going to do. Stage points are definitely the biggest concern for us going into tomorrow.”
What were your expectations going into the season and have you exceeded them?
“I had plenty of confidence in myself. I’ve always had confidence in my ability and I knew with the right equipment that I felt like I could get the job done and compete for race wins. It’s hard to win in this series. Any of these top-three series, it’s really hard to get a race win. To have three (wins) is definitely good. I feel like looking back with some of our issues that we’ve had throughout the season, I feel like we could’ve possibly had more wins. I’m fine with where we’re at right now with three wins, we’re in the Round of 6. My goal going into the year, I kind of set some goals just for myself and I wrote them down on a piece of paper, one of them was a race win, make it to the Round of 6 and eventually, hopefully make it to the Round of 4. That’s really my next goal is to get into that Round of 4 and at least have a shot at Homestead. If we don’t come home with the championship, obviously we’re going to be a little bummed out, but just giving ourselves a chance at Homestead is definitely the number one key moving forward.”
So you’ve met the goals so far this season?
“Yeah, I’ve kind of checked off all the boxes this year for what I was expecting and what I was wanting to have done. Like I said, if you could go back in the past and change some of the issues that we’ve had throughout the season with just stuff happening, I feel like our record would be even be a little bit better. I’m really excited about these next two races. I think we have a really good shot at making the Round of 4 and checking off that last box.”
After practice today, do you feel good about your truck?
“First practice I didn’t feel okay at all. We were struggling really bad. Really tight. I don’t know if anybody else was really fighting that issue, but we just couldn’t get the truck to turn at all. We made huge gains on it in second practice. I felt like we were a lot better. I don’t feel like we’re still really where we need to be to go win the race, but I definitely feel like we have good enough speed to hopefully stay inside the top 10 all day. At the end of practice, we did a semi-mock, so we didn’t really do full tape. We didn’t pump the tires up all the way, so we were just trying to get out there and run and see what we could run on new tires. I feel like if we would have taped up and stuff, we would’ve been a little higher on the sheet, which we were still in the top 10 I believe, ninth or something. We were definitely better. We were definitely better. We made gains at it and they’re working right now to make it turn even better for me, so hopefully we can get it turning a little bit better and tomorrow if the track doesn’t go the opposite way and start freeing up on us.”
TYLER ANKRUM, No. 17 Factory Canopies/Cometic Toyota Toyota Tundra, DGR-Crosley
Are you relaxed coming into Martinsville knowing you’re right on the cutoff line?
“I don’t want to say relaxed, but I don’t feel pressure on myself. I feel like I had a lot of extra added pressure on myself and I think my team saw that in the first round because there was so much pressure to make it to the next because we thought we could do it. Seeing how the first round went, for us it was just kind of like you know what, it’s going to happen, we’re not going to worry about it. We’re just going to go out and we’re going to do what we’ve been doing all year and that’s been improving every single race. I think we’ve improved a lot even in practice from the spring. Practice hasn’t really showed it, but I actually know what I’m doing this time, so it helps a lot when you actually know what you’re doing the second time around. I think we’re going to be pretty good for tomorrow.”
With qualifying here important, did you work on anything qualifying related in practice?
“Yeah we did actually. We weren’t as good in qualifying (trim) as I was hoping we were going to be. I thought we were just a little bit too tight. It’s so finicky here with these changes you’re just sitting on top of a razor blade. You take one wrong nudge the opposite way and it’s not you ‘fix me up a little bit here,’ it’s like you’ve got to make another swing at it. We weren’t as good in qualifying mock-run in practice as I hoped we would, but we talked a lot. We’re going to do some stuff with the rear-end and some camber, so I think we’ll be alright.”
You’ve called this your worst track on the circuit. Has that changed at all after two practices today?
“It has not changed at all. There’s still something in this place that just weakens me. This place is like my kryptonite. There’s just something about this track where I can’t really necessarily wrap my head around. Usually the easiest way for me to kind of calm myself down and kind of wrap my head around the track is just to kind of think of it mechanically-wise, not driving-wise. It’s easier for me to sit there and think about shocks and springs and cambers and trackbar heights and wedges and all that than thinking about what I’m going to do different on the race track. Just for me to calm myself down that way, it’s been helping a lot today.”
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