Two Flat Tires Deflate Ankrum’s Top-10 Run at Mid-Ohio

Tyler Ankrum maintained the 12^th position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings despite two flat tires deflating a top-10 run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The driver of the No. 16 Weins Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro finished 21^st after suffering a flat right front tire on the final lap and is 46 points behind the playoff cut line with one race remaining the regular season.

 

Ankrum posted the seventh-fastest lap during qualifying in rainy conditions on Saturday afternoon. The Californian began the 67-lap race in bright sunshine and immediately positioned himself as a player in the early laps by advancing to fifth on lap 10. Ankrum earned four points in seventh position at the end of Stage 1 on lap 20.

 

Crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the Weins Auto Group squad supplied Ankrum with four tires, fuel, and air pressure adjustments to help his tight condition in all 13 corners. He fell back to ninth, but climbed to eighth by lap 34 as air pressures began to rise and earned three points in that position at the end of Stage 2 on lap 40.

 

After taking another set of fresh tires, fuel, and reverting back to original air pressure settings, Ankrum reclaimed the seventh position on the lap 43 restart. On lap 49, contact from the No. 18 truck cut down Ankrum’s right rear tire while running eighth and forced him to make an unscheduled green flag pit stop and lost a lap to the leaders. A fortuitous caution on lap 51 allowed Ankrum to immediately regain his lap with the Lucky Dog award and restarted 26^th on lap 54. He quickly rejoined the top 15 by lap 60 and lined up 14^th for the final restart on lap 65. Ankrum took advantage of the late restart to advance to 11^th and was zeroing in on another top-10 finish but suffered a flat right front tire on the final circuit and was dealt a 21^st-place finish.

 

“We had good speed in our Weins Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro today, we just didn’t have any luck to go with it. We were in the process of recovering from that first flat tire and were in position to maybe still get a top-10, but we cut down a right front on the last lap and that was it. We had really good trucks on the road courses this year and we just kept getting better and better the longer the runs went today. We’ll move on to Pocono in a couple weeks and try to win a race and make the playoffs there.”

 

HRE PR