Road Warrior Ankrum Comes Home to California

Road Warrior Comes Home … Tyler Ankrum will make his debut in his home state of California on Saturday afternoon as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series makes it’s first appearance at Sonoma Raceway in 24 years. While the driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro has a resume that includes 78 Camping World Trucks starts, none of those have occurred in the “Golden State”. The stage could be set for Ankrum to deliver a season-best performance as the San Bernardino native has shown a consistent affinity for road course competition in his career. Saturday’s 75-lap contest at wine country’s 1.99-mile layout might offer Ankrum and the HRE the ticket they need to secure a spot in the Camping World Trucks playoffs.
 
Road Race Ace … Over the past three seasons, road courses have comprised a more significant portion of the schedule, which has played to Ankrum’s strength. Since making his first road course appearance in Camping World Trucks competition at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) in 2019, Ankrum has compiled an unmistakable track record. In six appearances at four different venues, the 21-year-old has delivered five finishes of ninth or better. Ankrum earned his first-career pole award in 2021 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) en route to a third-place finish, his best result at a road course. Sonoma Raceway will mark Ankrum’s fifth different road course, and has scored top-10 runs at each of the previous four on which he’s competed (CTMP, Daytona International Speedway, COTA, Watkins Glen International).
 
Season to Date … After 11 of 16 regular season events, Ankrum sits in 14th position in the drivers’ championship point standings and is looking for a victory that would reserve a spot in the playoffs. Ankrum has collected three top-10 finishes this season, with his best result of seventh coming at COTA in March.
 
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the No. 16 team have prepared chassis No. 015 for Ankrum’s debut in wine country. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro most recently competed at COTA with Ankrum at the controls and visited victory lane at Watkins Glen last season with Austin Hill. Chassis No. 015 has made three starts since debuting last season and has finished ninth or better in each appearance.   
 
Tune In … FOX Sports 1’s coverage from Sonoma begins on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET with qualifying, followed by the green flag at 7:30 p.m. ET. 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 the second road course race of the season:
“Our best finish this year was on a road course and I’ve always enjoyed road course racing, no matter where it’s at. It’s exciting to be able to race in my home state for the first time in the Truck Series and run at Sonoma for the first time too. We had some good speed at COTA earlier this year, and we have the same LIUNA Toyota Tundra TRD Pro this weekend, so hopefully we can put together a similar result. Road courses are always a challenge with trying to earn stage points but also having the right strategy to race for the win at the end, but we did a pretty good job of that at COTA. Hopefully we can do the same on Saturday, take care of our tires and keep a good long-run pace in our truck to be in contention going into the final fuel run.”
 
HRE PR