Southern Super Series: Austin Theriault
Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville Race Report
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Brad Keselowski Racing development driver Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, fought an ill-handling racecar all weekend long but rallied to finish ninth in the Southern Super Series 125 at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday, April 6. Theriault qualified the BKR No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion eighth for the series’ inaugural race, and he fought to maintain track position on the historic high-banked .596-mile oval. Despite a number of changes and a tire change at the Lap 75 break, the car never fared much better in Theriault’s first career trip to Nashville. It marked Theriault’s fourth consecutive Top-10 finish behind the wheel for BKR’s development program.
WHO: Austin Theriault, Fort Kent, Maine
TEAM: Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion
CREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C.
WHAT: Southern Super Series 125
WHERE: Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, Nashville, Tenn. (.596-mile oval)
STARTED: 8th
FINISHED: 9th
NEXT RACE: April 21, PASS 150, Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (.375-mile oval)
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AUSTIN, IT SEEMED LIKE THE CAR JUST NEVER CAME TO YOU THIS WEEKEND.
We kind of fought with it all weekend. We unloaded pretty decent, but about 20 minutes into the first practice (on Friday), we found out they were bringing a different tire compound to the track. Once we bolted on those tires, we never quite got the car in the racetrack. It was tight all weekend, and we just didn’t have any forward drive off the corners.
It’s one of those weekends you want to forget, but at the same time we came to Nashville to try and prepare for the (All-American 400) in the fall. We definitely learned a lot today and the whole weekend. The guys worked hard, and there’s nothing more that I could ask.
We went down swinging. Hopefully, we’ll go back to the shop and find out what happened. I know we’ll figure something out.
HOW HARD WAS IT TO MOVE FORWARD FROM THE INSIDE LANE ON RESTARTS?
Being tight here is really hard, especially when you start on the inside. The track is conducive to driving in and kind of letting the wash up a little bit in the turns. When you’re pinned down on the bottom with a tight car, you kind of of have to back out of it and the guy on the outside has all the momentum. He can just keep it wound up.
We fought that all night, and we had quite a few restarts on the bottom.
YOU HAD A GOOD BATTLE WITH THE 54 CAR IN THE CLOSING LAPS.
We had a lot of fun racing (Jeff Fultz) there at the end for ninth or 10th or whatever it was. It was definitely not the position we wanted to be racing for, but the car’s in one piece and that’s a good thing.
Again, thanks to all the guys at BKR and the crew. They worked really hard all weekend.