AT Racing: Austin Theriault Returns to Maine for PASS 300 at Beech Ridge
PASS North Series: Austin Theriault Beech Ridge Motor Speedway Race Preview
THE STORY
Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, returns to both the PASS North Series and the seat of his family-owned Ford Fusion for the Southern Maine Chrysler Dodge Jeep 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Sunday, September 15. Theriault has three Top-10 finishes in as many PASS North Series starts this season, most recently posting a fourth-place finish in the TD Bank Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway in July. Theriault is a two-time PASS South Series race winner this season for Brad Keselowski Racing, and he finished seventh in the AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway back in May. This marks his first appearance in the longest race on the PASS North Series schedule, and it comes just one week after he was wrecked out of the Top-3 while driving for Mulkern Racing in the Thunder Valley 200 at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee-Jonction, Que.
THE FACTS
WHO: Austin Theriault, Fort Kent, Maine
TEAM: AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion
BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE FINISH: 7th (May 2013)
LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE: 7th (May 2013)
WHAT: PASS North Series Southern Maine Chrysler Dodge Jeep 300
WHERE: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
WHEN: Friday, September 13 – 12 noon, practice; Saturday, September 14 – 10:20 a.m., practice; 12:15 p.m., qualifying; Sunday, September 15 – 11:10 a.m., practice; 3 p.m., race
PASS North Series
LAST RACE: September 8, Thunder Valley 200, Autodrome Chaudiere, Vallee-Jonction, Que. (26th)
NEXT RACE: September 28, PASS Championship 150, Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (.375-mile oval)
DID YOU KNOW?
Austin Theriault has PASS South Series wins this season at Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon, S.C., and Southern National Motorsports Park in Kenly, N.C., while driving for Brad Keselowski Racing.
Austin Theriault has three career PASS-sanctioned victories, including a win in the PASS North Series season finale at Oxford Plains Speedway in October of 2012.
Austin Theriault has never finished worse than ninth in a PASS North Series race in his career.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
AUSTIN THERIAULT, Driver of the AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion, On whether his experience in longer races the last two seasons while driving for Brad Keselowski Racing helps him this weekend: “Yes and no. I like longer races personally, but it adds more to it. There’s more you have to factor in, more opportunities to make mistakes – but there’s also more opportunity to recover if you do have a mistake. There are more chances on pit road, more chances to go laps down – it’s all relative to what you have to deal with. It adds some excitement for everybody, for us and the fans.
“I don’t look into it a whole lot other than it being a longer race. There’s more going on, more that we have to deal with as a team, and it’s all about strategy and trying to be able to balance and make the right call. We’ve been in in these situations before, especially in the (Oxford) 250, the last time this car raced, and I felt like we were fast. It was just that the cautions and pit stops didn’t play into our favor in that race.”
On racing on a flat track this weekend where he is very comfortable: “I don’t really think it’s about being comfortable in certain places for me any more – it’s about trying to perform every weekend. It’s always about trying to take our team – no matter who it’s with, down south or up here – and trying to bring everybody together at every track. We’re at the point now where we’re trying to complete a weekend and make sure that everything under our control falls the way we want it to. More times than not it doesn’t in this sport, but that’s what we’re trying to work on this weekend.
“We just want to make the puzzle pieces fall together. I have confidence in the car and the people I’m working with, and I think it’s the same for them. It’s not so much about flat tracks or being in my home state – it’s about performing the best we can wherever we go.”
On rebounding from a disappointing finish to the race at Autodrome Chaudiere last weekend: “I appreciate being able to drive for (Mulkern Racing owners) Scott and Vickie Mulkern in Canada. We were expecting that we would have a decent run, and things were going well. We got caught up in another incident before Lap 100 that ended our day, but I’m still thankful for the opportunity, and I wish we could have made more of it. I guess there are more bad days than good days sometimes, and we’ll move on from that race to this weekend.
“We’re taking the family car back out. Didn’t have the results in the spring that we’re capable of at Beech Ridge, but we made some changes and went to the (Oxford) 250 that way. I feel like we made some gains there, and we learned some stuff that we can try this weekend that will hopefully improve the product that we bring to the race track.”
UP NEXT
Austin Theriault heads to Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., for a Southern Super Series event on Friday, September 20… Theriault has made four stars in the Southern Super Series this season and has not finished outside the Top-10 in any of them.
Sources: Travis Barrett/Austin Theriault Racing PR