With Great Strategy, Ankrum secures a top 10 at Kansas
Tyler Ankrum collected a 10th-place result in his seventh start at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night. The driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro sits 14th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings after eight of 23 events.
After battling a tight condition in practice, Ankrum qualified 23rd on Saturday afternoon and began the 134-lap event from inside of row 12. The San Bernardino, Calif. product quickly went to work by methodically pacing his way towards the top-10. He immediately gained four positions in the opening laps and settled into 18th. A caution with seven laps to go would see Ankrum bring his LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro down pit road for four tires and an adjustment. This would prove to be the right call as Ankrum would finish stage 1 in the seventh position, gaining the ever valuable stage points.
Ankrum would stay out at the conclusion of the first stage and restart the race in position number four. Stage two would play out very similar to stage one. A late caution would bring Ankrum back down pit road with a handful of laps left in the stage. The No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro would restart outside of the top ten, but wouldn't stay there very long. Ankrum would once again finish seventh in stage two.
Stage three would start of with a bang, as Ankrum would yet again stay out at the stage caution. Stage three would see Ankrum restart in the third position. Another short green flag run would see Ankrum fall to eighth on track. From there, Ankrum would dodge the biggest incident of the night taking out multiple competitors. One final pit stop on the night with 40 laps to go would see significant changes to the No. 16 machine to help the overall balance. When the checkered flag flew, Ankrum would cross the line in tenth position.
Tyler Ankrum Quote:
“This place has changed drastically from when we were here last September. We unloaded super tight and the balance of the truck wasn't where I wanted it, but our LIUNA team kept our heads in the game all night. We had a lot of speed in our Toyota Tundra TRD Pro on the back end of the run most of the race, but it was tough to stay consistent and run the wall with no margin of error. We gained some valuable stage points tonight which was the goal going into the race. It's nice to carry a little momentum going into Darlington next friday night."