Tyler Ankrum

McAnally-Hilgermann Racing
2025 Fantasy Outlook
Ankrum raced to arguably his best campaign of his six-season truck series career last year. He'd stack up career-bests of six Top-5 and 12 Top-10 finishes. The young driver would be held out of victory lane, but Ankrum had the speed to challenge for a win on a couple of occasions. He returns to this race team once again for the upcoming season and teams again with crew chief Mark Hillman. The two will look to build on the consistency they established last season and hopefully make a big push to get into victory lane in 2025. Ankrum has a lot of potential and we'll soon see if he's reached the pinnacle or has more room to grow. Read Past Outlooks
Third in FR8 208
Craftsman Truck Series
February 22, 2025
Ankrum finished third in the FR8 208 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
ANALYSIS
The young driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet once again impressed on a superspeedway oval. Ankrum wouldn't lead a lap but he'd keep a presence among the Top 10 for most of the event. He would use the outside line to push on the final lap and tuck in behind Stewart Friesen. Ankrum would get past Bayley Currey at the finish line for a strong third-place performance at Atlanta. It was his first Top 5 of the season.
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Past Fantasy Outlooks
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
Ankrum comes off a bit of a lackluster season with just six Top-10 finishes and a subpar 17th-place finish in the final driver standings. The young driver will look to rediscover some of the swagger he showed three-to-four seasons ago in 2024. Ankrum moves from the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota and into the No. 18 Chevrolet truck of McAnally-Hilgemann. This is the same truck that Jake Garcia piloted last season to nine Top-10 finishes and a respectable 13th-place showing in the driver points. Ankrum has race winning and Top-10 driver potential as he showed in the 2019 and 2020 campaigns. The youngster will be paired with Mark Hillman at crew chief and the two will look to keep this team elevated and to boost Ankrum's performance to its former competitiveness. Having championship contender, Christian Eckes, for a teammate will certainly help in the feedback loop.
Ankrum's development had sort of stalled out the last couple seasons. That much-anticipated follow up win to his rookie season victory still hasn't materialized. In fact, statistically, Ankrum has flat lined since that strong rookie campaign in 2019. He returns to Hattori's strong No. 16 truck in 2023, but this season he'll get a crew chief change. Ankrum will now be partnered with longtime veteran Doug Randolph. Randolph has close to 600 starts of experience as a crew chief combined between NASCAR's top three touring series. He also has seven-career wins in the truck series and a runner-up finish in the points with Tyler Reddick in 2015. His experience should hopefully push Ankrum up to the next level of performance.
Up-and-coming youngster Ankrum gets a team change this season. The 20-year-old driver seemed to stall in his development last season in the GMS Racing camp. Ankrum nabbed just five Top-10 finishes and slid all the way back to 15th-place in the driver points. He now moves to a bit smaller team, but are proven performers in recent seasons. Austin Hill piloted this truck to two wins and 15 Top-10 finishes in 2021. Ankrum will get that experience and know-how for the upcoming campaign. He'll be paired with proven winner, Scott Zipadelli, at crew chief and the two should prove to be a good combination. Ankrum doesn't likely have multiple win seasons in his immediate future, but he should be very competitive and get his career back on track this season.
Ankrum returns for another season of racing behind the wheel of the GMS No. 26 Chevrolet. The young driver posted modestly improved marks in 2020 with three Top-5 and 10 Top-10 finishes, but seemingly some ways apart from challenging for wins. After 45 starts in this division of NASCAR, the expectations will grow for Ankrum in 2021. To this point his strengths really seem to be short track and intermediate oval racing. Those have been the best venues for him up until now. Ankrum will have a new crew chief in the upcoming season in Charles Denike. Denike guided both Chase Elliott and Sam Mayer to victories last season in just his first full season of crew chief in this division of NASCAR. It will be expected that he and Ankrum take some substantial steps forward in the upcoming campaign.
One of the brightest rising stars to race in the truck series this season will be Ankrum. The 18-year-old prospect had a very successful rookie run in this division of NASCAR last year. He only started 20 of the 23 events due to age restrictions, but put up impressive numbers in this near-full schedule with DGR-Crosley Racing. Ankrum snagged his first-career win at Kentucky Speedway in a surprising performance, and he piled up eight Top-10 finishes for the season. Down the stretch run of last year he suffered a bit of a cool down, but in total it was a great campaign. Ankrum comes to GMS Racing this year and will be paired with veteran crew chief, Chad Walter. The potential in this driver-crew chief combination is very intriguing.
Ankrum won't be 18-years-old until a few weeks after Daytona, so that means he can't race until event number four at Martinsville. However, the youngster is poised to run nearly the entire schedule with the exception of the first three races. Gilliland and Crosley formed this race team last season and hosted a number of different drivers between the two trucks. Ankrum made two starts, and grabbed a surprising Top-10 finish at Phoenix last fall. The young Californian has been building his racing resume for the last few years. Ankrum dominated the K&N Pro Series East in 2018 to capture four victories and the championship in that series. Now he'll look to grab truck series Rookie of the Year in what is mostly a full-time schedule in 2019.
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Runner-up Finish in Vegas
Craftsman Truck Series
March 2, 2024
Ankrum finished second in the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday evening.
ANALYSIS
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Fast Vegas Truck Practice
Craftsman Truck Series
March 1, 2024
Ankrum was fastest in Happy Hour practice for the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Friday afternoon. He turned a fast lap of 175.467 mph.
ANALYSIS
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Confirmed at Hattori
Gander Outdoors Truck
January 16, 2023
Hattori Racing Enterprises announced that former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner and playoff contender, Ankrum, will return to the No. 16 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for the 2023 season.
ANALYSIS
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Fast Truck Practice at Atlanta
Gander Outdoors Truck
March 19, 2022
Ankrum was fastest in Happy Hour practice for the Fr8 208 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday. He turned a fast lap of 181.610 mph.
ANALYSIS
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Hattori Racing Expanding
Gander Outdoors Truck
December 1, 2021
Hattori Racing Enterprises announced that the team will field two full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entries for the first time in the organization's history. Ankrum, a Camping World Trucks winner and former playoff contender, will take the reins of the team's No. 16 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in 2022 and return to the Toyota family.
ANALYSIS
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