Theriault Sets Sights On Winchester
BKR Driver Sees Improvement Following 6th In Alabama 200
FORT KENT, Maine – Austin Theriault may have been disappointed to finish sixth in the Southern Super Series Alabama 200 last Saturday at Montgomery Motor Speedway, but he was encouraged by what he saw over the course of the weekend.
The only thing that kept the Fort Kent, Maine, native from posting a Top-3 finish was a flat left front tire in the closing stages of the event. Leading up to that, however, the Brad Keselowski Racing development driver was fast throughout practice, qualifying and the main event.
“We’ve been trying to work on our CRA and Southern Super Series program, because there’s definitely some tough competition in that neck of the woods,” Theriault said. “It felt like we came away from the weekend learning some more. We made some more improvements – incremental improvements – but there’s still more we have to gain to lead tons of laps and win in those bigger races.”
Theriault was fastest in final practice for the Alabama 200 with the BKR No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion, and he qualified seventh for the 21-car field. He was running in the fourth position on the race’s final restart when his left front tire started going flat, leaving the 19-year-old driver to fight his way to the sixth-place finish at the checkered flag.
Now the team looks forward to a return to historic Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Ind., this weekend for the ARCA/CRA Super Series 100 on Monday, September 2. The race is the final tune-up for the 42nd annual Winchester 400 in October.
“I don’t read a whole lot into going to a race track to prepare for a bigger race,” Theriault said. “There’s definitely things you can learn, but as a driver, it’s my goal to try and relay as much information as I can to give us a chance to win – whether it’s the Winchester 400 or a 100-lap race before that.
“I try to win and try to race up front.”
Theriault has done a good job of that thus far this season. After finishing sixth at Montgomery, he has 11 straight Top-10 finishes in the BKR No. 29.
Theriault ran inside the Top-5 in his first visit to Winchester last season, a breakout performance at the time for the BKR development driver.
“It’s relatively fast for its size, but most of that comes from the fact it has a ton of banking,” Theriault said. “You drive it really hard into the corners and let the banking catch the car. The high groove is your friend. There aren’t a lot of tracks we race where you want to be that close to the top, but you don’t want to race the bottom at Winchester. You can let the banking catch the race car, help it turn and give you drive off the corner.”
The difference this time around at Winchester is that it’s not a 400-lap race like the one Theriault ran last October. It’s a 100-lap sprint.
“There’s less time to make sure you can execute what you need to do in the race. There’s less chance to recover if there is an issue early on,” Theriault said. “It’s probably more important to keep your track position and qualify up front. Everybody’s going to be going hard right from the start.”