Ankrum sees St. Louis as gateway to the playoffs
Headed West … Tyler Ankrum rolls into the “Gateway to the West” as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series invades the St. Louis area at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR). As five races remain before the playoffs begin, Saturday afternoon’s contest at WWTR marks a pivotal moment for the driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Ankrum currently resides 15th in the championship standings and hopes WWTR is the gateway to his third-career playoff berth.
HRE at WWTR … The San Bernardino, Calif. driver has four appearances under his belt at the St. Louis-area 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval. Ankrum made his debut at WWTR in 2019 and scored a best finish of 12th in 2020. The No. 16 team has had a steady track record in the St. Louis region since debuting there in 2017 with Ryan Truex. The HRE squad has put up one top-five, two top-10’s, and led laps in three of the five events, which included a third-place result in 2020.
Season to Date … Through 11 of 16 regular season events, Ankrum and the No. 16 team occupy the 15th position in the championship standings, 63 markers behind the cut line. Ankrum’s season-best result came eight races ago at Circuit of the Americas and he has posted three finishes of tenth or better in the 2023 season.
Chassis Selection … Chassis No. 008 will make it’s third start of the season at World Wide Technology Raceway. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro made its last start at Darlington Raceway, where Ankrum would run around the top-10 most of the day, settling for a 15th place finish at the track too tough to tame.
Tune In … Fox Sports 1 has complete coverage of the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway, beginning with practice and qualifying on Friday at 6:00 pm ET (FS1), followed by the green flag on Saturday at 1:30 pm ET (FS1). 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 World Wide Technology Raceway:
“Gateway is such a unique racetrack from where we’ve been racing the last month or so. It’s like a big short track with flat corners, a lot of braking, and we’ll for sure need our LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro to turn in the center of the corners. It races similar to Phoenix, but Turns one and two are really tight while (turns) three and four are kind of wide and sweeping. Pit road is extremely narrow and how you get in and out of your box could be critical. Hopefully we can start to regain some points as we get closer to the playoffs.”