The No. 17 of Tyler Ankrum was having a great run going at Michigan International Speedway until he was involved in a wreck with four laps to go after a push gone wrong.
Matt Crafton and Ankrum had been pushing each other all day, helping each other on the restarts that are so tricky at Michigan. On the restart with four to go, Crafton misjudged his push to Ankrum, which sent him spinning in front of the field and he collected his DGR-Crosley teammate.
Despite being caught up in a wreck Ankrum was not disappointed by the outcome.
“Final restart, things got a little bit hairy,” Ankrum told MRN Radio. “I was trying to control some of my tire spin with the clutch, just modulating on the throttle, brakes and the clutch. Just got a really big shove from the 88 (Crafton), felt like he kind of got in my right rear. Just got sideways there, chasing it from there and ended up getting hit from the side.”
“It was a really good effort by my Toyota DGR-Crosley team. We had a really fast truck. I think we could have won if I would have just got a better launch on that restart and not spun my tires so much. Really great effort, just one mistake at the beginning and then we were able to recover and we all saw the speed we had there at the end. Unfortunate it happened but we’re going to go to Bristol and try to go get one there.”
Ankrum’s day started out rough being penalized for a start violation by NASCAR. He would have to serve a pass-through penalty in order to serve the violation. As a result, Ankrum did not get any stage points in Stage 1 as he finished 25th. In stage 2 he had a much better finishing position of 12th.
Before being caught up in the crash with four to go, the California native was slated to restart on the front row with a shot at the win. However, with the crash, Ankrum had to settle for a 25th place finish after starting third.
Ankrum and his No. 17 DGR-Crosley team will now shift their focus to the Playoffs where they are seeded eighth in the standings, 17 points behind first place.
