Tyler Ankrum: The Newest Student of the Truck Series

By; Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer

Following his championship in the K&N Pro Series East in October, Tyler Ankrum found himself in the Camping World Truck Series three weeks later.

Making his debut at Martinsville, Ankrum teamed up with DGR-Crosley Racing to drive their No. 54 Toyota. After a successful K&N season with the team, the 17-year-old couldn’t think us a better team for the big step up.

“It’s all the same faces, all the same personalities. Haven’t had to change a thing outside the truck,” Ankrum told Kickin’ The Tires. “It’s been a huge help because they know me, they understand me and they know what I like in the car. Communication-wise, it’s been fantastic so far.”

Finishing 18th on debut, Ankrum returned to ISM Raceway in the No. 17 truck. Following a mid-race spin, he rebounded for his first top-10 finish coming home sixth.

From his five K&N East wins to super late model success and now Trucks starts, 2018 has been a career-defining year for the young driver. However, he’s not letting the accelerated path get to his head.

“I feel like I have been going, going, going,” he said. “It is hard to stay relaxed because you know the Cup guys are looking down and prospecting in a sense. It’s definitely huge, definitely hard to stay relaxed. I try to almost not think about racing. I try to think about the golf game yesterday or try to get the conversation off racing.”

P6 last night. Battled from the back and from a lap down super thankful for the truck @DGR_CROSLEY gave me last night. Had a blast! pic.twitter.com/2zOFFrhuwK

— Tyler Ankrum (@TylerAnkrum) November 10, 2018

Across the 14-race K&N calender, Ankrum took notice of how the mind can dictate performance. And for him, this is the biggest lesson learned from the feeder series.

“At the end of the year everyone was telling me, ‘You’re leading by 30 points, 50 points. You got to drive conservative, do this, do this,'” he said. “It really messed me up. It put me into the mindset of having to drive conservative, I can’t wreck, I can’t put myself in risky positions.

“At the end of the year, you saw my finishes decline. All those things that went into it messed me up. So, the biggest thing I learned is that if you’re in a championship position, don’t change a thing you’re doing. Because everything we were doing all year was working. Up until the last few races, I had an average finish of 3.2 and I finished the year off with a 4.6.

“Even our bad races were pretty good, but I just lost sight of that in the car.”

Lessons like this can pay dividends while racing with more veterans than rookies.

“Every single driver in the field isn’t your age now,” he said of Trucks. “All the guys who are in Trucks have been here for at least a year or more. There are five or six of us making our jumps but right now, but Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter are hard to beat.”

Though he may not be racing for a Truck Series championship in 2019, plans are in the works for a return to part-time racing across multiple divisions.

“So far, we’ve had like nine different projections,” he said of his career. “Each one hasn’t gone right but for what we’ve been doing, we’re heading down the right track.

“It doesn’t really look like we could do [full-time Trucks in 2019] financially. Right now, part-time Trucks and part-time ARCA and maybe some super late model racing. Not too sure yet, we still have two months until the next race season.”

(Below is a video capture of our conversation with Tyler Ankrum)