AT RACING: Theriault Builds Momentum, Heads To Winchester Speedway

Aug 29, 2013 | Maine Racing News

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.
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AT RACING: Theriault Joins Southern Super Series For Alabama 200

Aug 23, 2013 | Maine Racing News

Southern Super Series: Austin Theriault
Montgomery Motor Speedway Race Preview

THE STORY

FORT KENT, Maine – Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, rejoins the Southern Super Series as it heads to the 49th annual Alabama 200 at Montgomery Motor Speedway in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday, August 24. Theriault has never visited the semi-banked half-mile oval, but the Brad Keselowski Racing development driver has made three Southern Super Series starts this season and has yet to finish outside the Top-10 in any of them. In his most recent start in the BKR No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion, Theriault finished fifth in the prestigious World Crown 300 at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga., earlier this month. Theriault has posted four consecutive Top-5 finishes in his starts for BKR heading into Montgomery, and in his last 10 races this season with the team he has six Top-5s and 10 Top-10s. (more…)

AT RACING: Theriault Finishes 5th In World Crown 300

Aug 14, 2013 | Maine Racing News

Southern Super Series: Austin Theriault
World Crown 300 Race Report

JEFFERSON, Ga. – Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, finished fifth in the Southern Super Series World Crown 300 at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga., on Saturday, August 10. It was Theriault’s second straight Top-5 in one of Super Late Model racing’s most prestigious events. Theriault qualified sixth in the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion and tried to play the tire strategy game in the second half of the event, but a long green-flag run to close out the race thwarted that plan and left Theriault running fifth at the checkered flag.
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: World Crown 300
WHERE: Gresham Motorsports Park, Jefferson, Ga. (.500-mile banked oval)
STARTED: 6th
FINISHED: 5th

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AUSTIN, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS WERE GOOD BUT NOT GREAT IN THE WORLD CROWN 300.

Yeah, you kind of hit it right there. It’s a little bit of a disappointment. At the level we’re racing, a Top-5 isn’t bad, but I think we’re plenty capable of more.

We pitted on Lap 100 for tires, and when the caution came out again on Lap 180, we just made some adjustments while everyone else took tires, hoping we’d have another caution later on – but it went green right to the end. We had almost 200 laps on our tires. That’s quite a lot of laps on them. It wasn’t a horrible finish taking all that into account, but it could have been better.

WHAT WERE YOU FIGHTING?

It rained before qualifying, and I don’t know if that had something to do with it. The way we ended practice, we were actually a little free. But when we went out to qualify, the whole balance of the car went the complete opposite direction. I think some of the guys that were too free, it probably benefited them.

I felt like we had a car that was capable of running in the Top-5, but if most everything fell in our favor, that would have helped us out. The car wasn’t perfect in practice, but those weekends are hard to get where you just put it on jackstands and wait for qualifying. You don’t really find those weekends. We were still trying to make the car better, and I think we made some gains. I really appreciate Clay Rogers taking some time on Friday when I was in New Hampshire to work with Gary (Crooks) and get the car tuned in. They found something that helped when I showed up on Saturday.

HOW DID THE IMPOUND AFTER QUALIFYING EFFECT YOUR RACE?

We kind of chased the track for a little while. It was really slick, and a little free (in practice). We tightened it up a little and worked on trying to get some grip in the car. Maybe we went a little too far in qualifying, because we were a little snug then.

With the impound, we couldn’t make any adjustments after qualifying. The track cooled down and gained a little more grip than we expected. We struggled a little bit throughout the race trying to get the car to turn a little better in the center of the corner. I’d say we made it a little bit better, and we were faster at the end of the race, but we didn’t have the tires we needed to run up front. We were one of two or three cars that had tires left in the pits, because we had that long green flag run at the end.

AT RACING: Theriault Finishes 5th In CRA Night Of Stars 100 At LORP

Jul 31, 2013 | Maine Racing News

ARCA/CRA Super Series: Austin Theriault
Lucas Oil Raceway Park Race Report

SALEM, Ind. – Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, finished fifth in the ARCA/CRA Super Series Night Of Stars 100 at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Salem, Ind., on Friday, July 26. Theriault qualified seventh in his first trip to the famed .625-mile oval outside of Indianapolis, and rallied to finish in the Top-5 to mark his sixth consecutive Top-6 finish in the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Ford Fusion. Theriault spent the limited amount of practice time at LORP dialing the car in after unloading at the flat track and felt that by the time the race ended the car was the best it had been all weekend.
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: ARCA/CRA Super Series Night Of Stars 100
WHERE: Lucas Oil Raceway Park, Salem, Ind. (.625-mile oval)
STARTED: 7th
FINISHED: 5th

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AUSTIN, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE DAY OVERALL AT LUCAS OIL RACEWAY PARK?
Honestly, it was one of the more challenging weekends we’ve had in a while. We unloaded and struggled with both cars, both Trey Mitchell and myself. With the limited amount of practice time and it being a one-day race, we spent the first practice throwing a whole bunch of things at the car. We made some gains on it, and in the second practice we just tried to focus on continuing to make the gains we made in the first practice. We kind of just ran out of time, and had to race with what we ended up with.

We made some changes before the race. Looking back at them, they might have been wrong way to go – but it was just the way everything ended up with the circumstances, there wasn’t much else we could do. We still ran a decent race. We finished better than we qualified, which was positive. I really felt like we had a Top-5 car, and that’s where we ended up finishing. It was another positive weekend where we learned some stuff, and we did some things we’ll be able to build on.

WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE TRACK?
The track was one of the more challenging race tracks I’ve been to, both to race on and to pass on. You really had to be a lot faster than the guy ahead of you to pass them. There wasn’t a bottom groove, nor was there really a second groove. Most everybody was running at the top of the race track near the wall. That’s where we were fastest.
You had to make up a lot of ground on restarts. We just weren’t fortunate to start on the outside on any of the restarts, but we stayed out of trouble and tried to take what the track would give us.

WHAT DOES THE RECENT STRING OF TOP-6 FINISHES DO FOR YOU AND THE TEAM?
It’s a positive to be able to do that, but we all know that we’re capable of winning. We could have won some of these races – just sometimes it comes down to the circumstances and how the races play out. Things just didn’t play in our favor in a couple of them.

It’s also ammunition for us to work harder and to try harder to try to turn some of these Top-5 and Top-6 finishes in the future into wins. It’s not a bad thing we’re doing this, it allows us to build on something when you’re not wrecking race cars and can finish Top-5 every week. It allows you to work on something bigger. Now we just have to work on being able to turn Top-5s into wins.