You always want to be the first to win something.
In 2021, Austin Hill and Hattori Racing Enterprises got their shot at being “first,” when the No. 16 team won the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway dirt track.
It was a wild and destructive affair with 14 cautions, including one for a 17-truck pileup.
But at the end of 179 laps (the race was originally supposed to be 150 laps around the half-mile track), it was Hill and crew chief Scott Zipadelli who survived to take their first checkered flag of the year.
It was the team’s first win on dirt.
“That race right there, went our way. It went to the plan. (Hill) stuck to the plan and he drove a hell of a race,” Zipadelli told SPEED SPORT. “We took care of our truck when everybody else was pushing too hard, too soon and wearing or wearing their stuff out. We stayed right there in striking distance until when it was time to go we went.”
But after three years and eight wins with Hattori, Hill has graduated to the Xfinity Series.
In his place is fourth-year Truck Series driver Tyler Ankrum.
For Ankrum, 21, Hattori is his third stop in the series after stints with David Gilliland Racing and GMS Racing.
For Zipadelli, in his eighth season as a Truck Series crew chief, Ankrum represents the sixth different driver he’s been paired with for Truck Series dirt races. Outside his three years with Hill, every other season has seem him working with another driver.
What’s the challenge in preparing for these unique races with a new driver on an almost yearly basis?
“That is definitely difficult because you don’t know the driver’s ability,” Zipadelli said. “I think Knoxville is definitely a place you have to drive the truck certain way. So I’m trying to get Tyler to do what we worked on last year going to next Knoxville what worked with Austin and hopefully he can adapt that type of style of how he loads the truck and his feel. If he goes there and tries to drive a completely different than what we worked on, it’s going to be a challenge.
“Unfortunately, you’re really leaving a lot of this up to the driver, which is very specific at every race track.”
This will be Ankrum’s fifth Truck start on a dirt track. His best result so far is ninth in 2019 at Eldora.
How does the California native view dirt racing at this point in his career?
“One of the things, especially with open wheel cars and why open wheel dirt racing is so exciting, is because they have dirt purpose vehicles, whether it’s a dirt late model, a dirt sprint car or dirt micro or dirt modified,” Ankrum told SPEED SPORT. “They’re all quote unquote, ‘staggered cars.’ They’re really lightweight chassis. They have a lot of motor and they have these really big tires, which allows them to race the way they do on dirt and that’s what makes dirt racing so exciting. And we just don’t have that. We have really heavy trucks, we have really big motors, but we have no bottom end with the gearing that we’re allowed to have in the NASCAR Truck Series. We don’t have much torque. …
“It can get really frustrating in these truck races because, like last year was a demolition derby. If you didn’t get to the bottom as fast as possible you’re stuck on the top and there was a freight train … In fact, I’ve never participated in a race before where it did not matter who was down there, you just hung a left, it did not matter who’s down there. For me, growing up as a racer, it’s really not my style. But it’s one of those things where it’s here to stay, and you got to accept that. I’m becoming one of those that’s just starting to accept it.”
Driving style is a point of emphasis for Zipadelli this season when it comes to his work with Ankrum.
Through 12 races together, Ankrum has just four top 10s with a best result of seventh at Circuit of The Americas. Ankrum had a near-miss in the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway when he was caught in a 17-truck wreck coming to the end of the scheduled distance.
He was also running up front late last weekend at Sonoma Raceway until a pit penalty led him to finish ninth.
Ankrum’s average finish entering Knoxville is 16.9.
For Zipadelli, his goal is to mold Ankrum into a more offensive driver instead of a defensive one.
“I’d say this is almost like a new beginning for Tyler,” Zipadelli said. “He’s with a new team. And I feel like our program is stronger than the teams he was with in the past. So I feel like he’s picked up some bad habits and trying to protect himself from making mistakes. … Right now we’re still trying to get Tyler up to that level where he is confident in himself and his abilities and trusts the race truck. I think every week we get a little bit closer to that. I mean you see that a lot with drivers, who’ve been at the same place for a few years and haven’t had the success they want.”
Ankrum is winless since his first Truck victory with DGR at Kentucky Speedway in 2019 .
“They start driving their vehicles a certain way to protect themselves from making big mistakes, right?” Zipadelli said. “That becomes the new norm to where they won’t let themselves be vulnerable to pushing a little extra or taking chances and stuff like that.”
Ankrum said he doesn’t think his crew chief is “wrong at all.”
“I always have an open mind when it comes to these things, because ultimately at the end of the day, my first name is not Jeff and my last name is not Gordon. I don’t have five Cup championships,” Ankrum said.
Ankrum explained how his evolution as a driver had taken a hit over the last few years when NASCAR scrapped or limited practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s definitely harder in today’s world,” Ankrum said. “When I first started racing in the truck series we had two hours of practice before we would qualify. In today’s world, you’re lucky, you’re grateful to have any 50 minutes of practice. You’re grateful for 20 minutes of practice. And I mean, just those aspects alone make it way harder on all of us and trying to get over that curve, get over that hump a lot faster makes it more difficult. But Scott’s been extremely patient.”
Zipadelli is eager for once the team can “get the offense” instilled in Ankrum to the point where he’s “gonna be hammer down, let’s go forward. Let’s see what I got” every weekend.
“Someone may say it’s like 50 first dates,” Zipadelli observed. “But if you’re not ready to do that, it’s best to be smart and take care of your stuff until you’re ready. I can’t get out there and say, ‘Go out 100%’ if you’re not ready, that’s just getting in trouble. Start wrecking stuff early and putting yourself in bad spots. So he’s once he’s gonna learn what his truck is gonna do, what it’s gonna feel like consistently, then you start going forward every week.”
Ankrum will try to repeat Hill’s performance last year of getting his first win of the season in a “wild card” race.
Does he feel any pressure to defend Hattori’s 2021 win?
“Honestly, I don’t feel a lot of pressure. Knoxville …. is a demolition derby,” Ankrum said. “Hattori proved last year that you don’t have to be that way when you’ve got the speed and you’ve got the capability of the driver, which I believe that I have and I know they have the capability of the truck. …
“I have some solid confidence heading into this race knowing that we had a pretty good truck at Bristol dirt and just getting stuck in the back there having a blown tire and just so many things go wrong at that race. Even though we had a really fast truck, knowing that if those mistakes that we made at Bristol dirt and what to fix, not to fix, having those thoughts going to Knoxville, I think will be the winning recipe.”
Trucks Return To Knoxville With ‘Reinforced Everything’