Tyler Ankrum was the youngest of eight drivers attempting the Double Duty Dare in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Tour’s season finale, but he had no problems mixing it up at historic Hickory Motor Speedway Saturday night in the Liberty University 300.

Ankrum, a 14-year-old from San Bernadino, California, joined a list of seven other competitors who accepted the CARS Tour’s Double Duty Dare to conclude the inaugural season of the unique series. The series offered a $40,000 bonus on top of the regular purses for their two divisions to a driver capable of winning both the Late Model Stock Car and Super Late Model races Saturday night.

Ankrum started the night with a third-place finish in the Late Model Stock feature. The finish marked Ankrum’s sixth top-five finish in the ten-race touring series, and clinched a fifth-place finish in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour points standings.

Ankrum passed fellow double duty driver Clay Rogers with five laps remaining in the 150-lap race, but the long green flag run to conclude the race meant Ankrum had no opportunity to battle eventual winner Josh Berry and second-place Tommy Lemons, Jr. for the victory.

“We had a good car,” Ankrum told RACE22.com after the race. “We didn’t have anything for the two leaders up ahead of us. We could have given them a little run for their money if there was a caution at the end.”

The podium finish came one week after Ankrum won the Fall Brawl at Hickory, beating out former UARA champion and ValleyStar Credit Union 300 winner Jake Crum for the victory in that race. That performance gave Ankrum an extra boost of confidence entering the CARS Late Model Stock Tour finale.

“It was a good effort on our part, coming back here,” Ankrum said. “We wanted to follow up on the Fall Brawl win the week before.”

Despite missing out on the victory and a shot at the $40,000 bonus, Ankrum had a strong run during the first half of the Super Late Model feature. The event marked his first time running in the CARS Super Late Model Tour, following two Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model starts earlier in the season.

Ankrum started 12th and spent most of his race in the top ten despite radio communication issues. Those issues ultimately led to an incident on lap 80, when Ankrum drifted up the track on the backstretch into Dominique Van Wieringen, putting both cars into the outside fence and out of the race.

“A little disappointed with the Super Late Model run,” Ankrum said about his second race of the night. “I lost communication with my spotter on lap one. I was actually kind of lucky I made it 80 laps. Sorry to Dominique Van Wieringen, I didn’t mean to get up into her.”

One of the most exciting aspects of the CARS Tour’s inaugural season has been the emergence of young stars, such as Late Model Stock Car champion Brayton Haws and Super Late Model champion Cole Timm. With his strong runs all season, Ankrum also made an impression on the CARS Tour in 2015 and could be even more successful next year.

RACE22.com’s Andy Marquis contributed to this report.