TD Bank Oxford 250: Austin Theriault
Oxford Plains Speedway Race Report
OXFORD, Maine – Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, finished fourth in the 40th annual TD Bank Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Sunday, July 21. Theriault made two scheduled four-tire pit stops over the final 100 laps of the event and was closing on the leaders without the benefit of a caution flag over the final 60 circuits. The 19-year-old driver of the AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion grabbed fourth right at the checkered flag for his third straight Top-5 finish in the Oxford 250 and his eighth straight Top-10 finish in a Super Late Model. Theriault opened the weekend with a fifth-place finish in the IWK 250 at Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, on Saturday, July 20, in the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion. His team owner and teammate for the race, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, finished just two spots ahead in third.
WHO: Austin Theriault, Fort Kent, Maine
TEAM: AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion
CREW CHIEF: Johnny Killen, Mooresville, N.C.
WHAT: TD Bank Oxford 250
WHERE: Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine
STARTED: 15th
FINISHED: 4th
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AUSTIN, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR NIGHT OVERALL?
It was a little bit of a disappointing night. We obviously didn’t get the finish we wanted. We’ve been third two years in a row and now a fourth tonight – we definitely had a better car than we finished. It was a little unfortunate there at the end. There was a caution in front of us, a couple people spun out, and I went off the race track to avoid it. I lost all that that track position with 80 to go.
The car was awesome, but we could only recover up to fourth. I definitely feel like if we wouldn’t have been involved in that caution, we would have had something. We realistically can’t be disappointed. Everybody worked hard, they did their best, the pit stops were good. We did the best we could. To come out of it where we did, we’ll go on to the next one.
WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE RACE AT RIVERSIDE SPEEDWAY ON SATURDAY?
Last night was a pretty cool experience. Brad’s development program has been awesome to me. It’s given me tons of experience and ton of opportunities. Being able to work with Brad was cool. I got to spend some time with him, listen to some of his feedback, how him and (crew chief Gary Crooks) worked together. It’s stuff that’s going to help me become a better driver. I soaked in a lot of that information, and came out of it with a Top-5 finish.
I think the car definitely wasn’t where we wanted it to be, but we got the most out of it. Everybody worked hard,and that’s all you can ask for.
WAS IT NICE TO BE RACING BACK IN MAINE?
It was a cool night. It’s always awesome to come back to where we started. I’m going to regret not being back on the podium, to be honest.
The good thing is that everybody’s putting in the hours, and it’s paying off. Now we’ve got to finish some deals and win some of these races. We’ve got a couple more big races coming up, so we’ll try and win those.