{"id":8890,"date":"2012-01-31T21:15:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T02:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2012-01-31T20:42:58","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T01:42:58","slug":"theriault-posts-career-super-late-model-finish-speedfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/theriault-posts-career-super-late-model-finish-speedfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Theriault Posts Best Career Super Late Model Finish At Speedfest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Austin Theriault: CRA Speedfest 200<br \/>\nWatermelon Capital Speedway Race Report<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/neracer.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=6093\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6093\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/maineracing.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/theriault-bkr-dodge-300x179.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"theriault bkr dodge\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6093\" \/><\/a>CORDELE, Ga. \u2013 Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, posted his best career Super Late Model result by finishing eighth in the season-opening CRA Speedfest 200 at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Ga., on Sunday, January 29. Theriault started 16th in the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Dodge after an engine problem in practice on Friday, and then he used the pit strategy game to post a Top-10 finish in his third career start for BKR. Theriault pitted for right side tires only at the halfway mark of the event, which was won by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch, to gain the track position he would maintain until the finish.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nWHO: Austin Theriault, Fort Kent, Maine<br \/>\nTEAM: BKR No. 29 Checkered Flag Foundation Dodge<br \/>\nCREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C.<\/p>\n<p>WHAT: CRA Speedfest 200<br \/>\nWHERE: Watermelon Capital Speedway, Cordele, Ga. (.375-mile banked oval)<br \/>\nSTARTED: 16th<br \/>\nFINISHED: 8th<\/p>\n<p>***************************<\/p>\n<p>AUSTIN, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR RACE?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe race went pretty well. The field was very stout, the competition was right there. We decided to take two tires (on the pit stop). I think it was the right call knowing the circumstances that we were given. A couple of other drivers did some different things \u2013 Chase Elliott took no tires, a couple up front took four. There&#8217;s pros and cons to everything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a couple of restarts there, we weren&#8217;t able to go enough laps before we&#8217;d get another caution or two. We got stuck on the outside, and it was tough to find grip on the outside. The guys with four tires on the bottom had the advantage. To come home eighth wasn&#8217;t too bad. It was a solid Top-10. It was something we can build on, and it was a good showing for BKR.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENGINE DURING FRIDAY&#8217;S PRACTICE?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of teams would have just packed up and gone home. The guys are not afraid to work. They stayed up until two in the morning to get the motor in \u2013 it just goes to show how they&#8217;ll never give up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really hadn&#8217;t made too many laps in practice. From what I can tell, it was just a mechanical failure in the motor. There was no predicting it. It didn&#8217;t totally destroy. We kind of caught it before it blew up on the track, but we knew it was pretty severe and had to be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DID THAT SET YOU BACK FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe missed pretty much an hour and a half of practice. That made it a little tougher being that I&#8217;d never visited the track before. We still got a decent qualifying run (16th). Obviously, time trialing is still kind of new to me, and I&#8217;m learning every time we go to try and time trial. We&#8217;ll go back to the drawing board and keep working on trying to improve my qualifying efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, I think we were all very happy with the finish that we got. The guys \u2013 Tyler, Adam and Gary \u2013 they worked their butts off trying to get the car back together. I think we were only able to make two practice sessions before the motor blew on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Theriault: CRA Speedfest 200 Watermelon Capital Speedway Race Report CORDELE, Ga. \u2013 Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, posted his best career Super Late Model result by finishing eighth in the season-opening CRA Speedfest 200 at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, Ga., on Sunday, January 29. Theriault started 16th in the Brad Keselowski Racing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,126],"tags":[4671,166],"class_list":["post-8890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maine","category-new-england","tag-austin-theriault","tag-brad-keselowski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}