Tyler Ankrum, driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST was forced to an unfortunate 31st-place finish in the OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 in St. Petersburg due to an abundance of damage from a late-race incident Saturday afternoon. After qualifying was washed out on Friday afternoon, by the NASCAR points system, Ankrum was set to start the 80-lap event 13th in line. A clean start by the field allowed the young driver to move up multiple positions on the opening lap and break through to the top 10 early on after the first yellow flag fell on lap three. Ankrum reported to his team that he was struggling a little bit with braking and wheel hopping getting into the corners but nothing he could not handle. Taking the restart on the outside and solid focus forward, the driver of the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet took the first green-white-checkered flag in the eighth position.

Under controlled pit stops, crew chief Mark Hillman called for four fresh tires, top off of Sunoco race fuel and slight adjustments to the air pressure and splitter with some packer. Time was up and the field rolled back green for Stage Two. A quiet second stage held the young driver around the same positions and he stayed tight for a seventh-place Stage Two finish. No adjustments were needed as the San Bernardino, Calif. native took four tires and fuel only under the stage break. Ankrum’s consistent run came to a halt after a quick move to the outside forced the No. 18 into the tail of a competitor and caused an abundance of damage to the nose and right-front of his race truck. The young driver held on until a caution came out multiple laps later and Hillman (Mark, crew chief) called him down pit road to assess the damages.

The team came to an unfortunate conclusion of a gaggle of issues after multiple trips down pit road and loss of power steering. The crew was able to patch things up enough to get Ankrum back on the course and finish the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) event. After limping the No. 18 LIUNA Chevrolet Silverado RST around the St. Petersburg street course the best he could, Ankrum was relegated to a 31st-place finish. This weekend’s finish sets the young driver back to 12th in the NCTS point standings.

Tyler Ankrum Quote:

“Tough day here in St. Pete, man. We had a really fast LIUNA Chevrolet and these guys really put in the work to give me the tools I needed to succeed today. Just super disappointed that it ended the way it did. We will take these next two weeks to regroup as a team and come back at is confident at Darlington. Can’t thank the guys from Local 630, 517, Ronnie Burris and David Rutledge for coming out to support us today.”

MHR PR