Ankrum Looks to Rebound at Home in Charlotte

Home Game … The 10^th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race of the season at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) is a welcome sight for Tyler Ankrum, just 30 minutes from the HRE race shop, and provides a “home game” in the midst of eight-straight weeks of competition. The driver of the No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro is coming off a strong effort at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend where he displayed the most outright speed of the season. Ankrum, crew chief Scott Zipadelli, and the No. 16 team look to parlay racing in the team’s backyard to another top-10 run and regain ground in the championship standings.

 

Charlotte History … The San Bernardino, Calif. native has made three Camping World Truck starts at CMS in his 76-race career and scored a best finish of 13^th in 2020 at “America’s Home for Racing”. Zipadelli’s No. 16 squad has the potential to instantly elevate Ankrum’s numbers at CMS, as the group has scored five finishes of ninth or better at CMS since 2017 with three different drivers. Over the last five CMS events, the No. 16 truck has led 55 laps in three different races.

 

HRE Salutes … Ankrum’s LIUNA Toyota Tundra TRD Pro will showcase a military-themed paint scheme as the Camping World Trucks kick off Memorial Day weekend. The scheme features names of 2,400 LIUNA members who are also active or veteran military service members in recognition and solemn appreciation for the sacrifices they’ve made for our nation. Additionally, Ankrum will carry John F. Penn and Michael Knight above the right-side door. Penn, who is LIUNA’s Vice President and Midwest Regional Manager, served in the Air Force. Knight also served in the Air Force from 1985-2006 as a Communications and Computer Systems Specialist, was responsible for securing military communications systems.

 

Season to Date … Through nine of 23 races, Ankrum has collected three top-10 finishes and currently sits 14^th in the Camping World Trucks championship point standings. He scored a season-best seventh-place finish at Circuit of the Americas in March.

 

Chassis Selection … The No. 16 team has once again prepared one of the most successful trucks in HRE’s fleet, chassis 007, for Ankrum to race at CMS. This chassis most recently competed at Kansas Speedway earlier this month. Chassis No. 007 has three wins in its history, the most recent of which came at Kansas in 2020.

 

Tune In … All on-track activity from CMS will be carried live on FOX Sports 1 beginning with practice and qualifying at 1:30 p.m. ET. NASCAR Raceday follows at 8:00 p.m. ET with the green flag at 8:30 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.

 

“Kicking off Memorial Day weekend is always a big weekend for the sport, and it’s extra special this weekend with our military appreciation paint scheme and having so many LIUNA members and military veterans on board. Charlotte is an important race for our team, but recognizing the sacrifices made by our armed forces service members is even more important. All of us at HRE are incredibly grateful for everything they and their families have done to keep our country free. The truck looks great and hopefully we’ll be able to put our LIUNA Toyota Tundra TRD Pro up front on Friday night. We had an incredibly fast truck at Texas last week and ran into some bad luck towards the end, but it’s given us a lot more confidence coming to Charlotte. Hopefully we dial in the balance in practice and have just as much speed this week as we did last week.”

 

HRE PR