Multiple incidents hinder Ankrum at Charlotte Motor Speedway
On a special night honoring 2,372 LiUNA! veterans on Memorial Day weekend, Tyler Ankrum would finish 28th after an incident late in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS). The San Bernardino, Calif. native fought a tight handling truck most of the night. Ankrum currently sits 15th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings after 11 events.
The weekend would start off on a sour note; on his third lap in practice, Ankrum reported the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro jumped out of gear and over-reved the engine. Erring on the side of caution, the team would forego the rest of practice and qualifying to replace the engine and transmission prior to the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. This would relegate Ankrum to the 35th starting position.
Ankrum wasted no time getting through the field picking up 11 spots over the course of stage one weaving through traffic. Stage one would go green to green and white checkered; Ankrum reported through the run that his truck was very tight. Ankrum would finish stage one in the 24th position. When Ankrum was coming to pit road at the end of the stage, he would acquire nose damage that would hinder him for the rest of the race.
Stage two would see Ankrum race inside the top 20 for most of the stage, Ankrum would still report a tight No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro as the sun would set on Charlotte Motor Speedway. Ankrum would once again finish stage two in position 25. With 30 laps remaining in the race, Ankrum was involved in another incident on the backstretch that would require extensive repair to his race truck. As a result, Ankrum would finish the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 in the 28th position.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“This one was pretty frustrating at the end of the day. We had a pretty fluky thing happen in practice that set us back a little bit when it came to the race. These races usually hinge on track position, so I knew it was going to be a long day. At first, we had a really good LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, we fired off a little tight and just kept building that way. We got caught up in an incident late that really hindered our performance. Just have to put this one behind us and focus up on Gateway."