Fort Kent’s Austin Theriault hasn’t spent much time behind the wheel of a race car since he finished 12th at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ American Ethanol 200 on June 19 at Iowa Speedway.
He has raced just twice since then as he prepares for the most important stretch of races in his young career beginning Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.
The 21-year-old Theriault, who has run five of the 15 races to date in the Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing, will be in the seat of the No. 29 Ford truck for the series’ final eight races.
“It has been a challenging couple of months,” Theriault said. “It’s like getting hurt after the first five games of the soccer season and then returning for the quarterfinals. You’re coming back when everyone else is at their best.
“You try to make the best of it. It’ll take a couple of races to scrape the rust off,” he added.
The two races he entered during his Truck Series hiatus were the ModSpace 125 ARCA race on Aug. 3 at Pocono Raceway (Pennsylvania) and the Irving Oil Blending and Packing 250 Super Late Model Race on Sept. 6 at Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick.
He finished fourth at the ARCA race and fifth at Speedway 660.
The rest of the time, he has been at the truck races with the Keselowski Racing team picking up tidbits he can implement when he returns to the truck.
“I’ve heard how the veteran drivers communicate with the crew chief … how they prepare for a race and how they manage it — all the stuff you can think of,” said Theriault, who also worked in the BKR shop and kept in shape by running, lifting weights and mountain biking.
Despite competing in just five of the 15 races so far, Theriault is 25th in the points standings. Everybody above him has run at least seven races.
Theriault notched two top five finishes and four top-12s in his five races. He hasn’t finished any lower than 14th.
His No. 29 truck has had four other drivers: Keselowski (four races) and fellow Sprint Cup regular Joey Logano (one) along with Ryan Blaney (four) and Alex Tagliani (one).
Between the five of them, the drivers in the No. 29 truck have posted 10 top 10s, eight top fives and two wins (Logano and Blaney).
“Austin is a really consistent driver. He has everything you would want in a driver. He talks to our other drivers, watches videos and puts in all the work you need to in order to prepare for a race,” said Chad Kendrick, Theriault’s crew chief.
Theriault has raced at just two of the upcoming eight tracks as he tries to make a positive impression to land a ride for next season: New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 26) and Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 6).
The others, besides Chicagoland, New Hampshire, and Texas, will be Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Oct. 3), Talladega SuperSpeedway in Alabama (Oct. 24), Martinsville Speedway in Virginia (Oct. 31), Phoenix International Raceway (Nov. 13) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 20).
“It is a wide variety of tracks. It will be interesting,” said Theriault, who is looking forward to seeing family and friends at Loudon, New Hampshire, in two weekends.
He has learned from his previous races and said he has “stuff to work on.”
“Sometimes, I’m my own worst critic. But everyone is different. I’d rather be my own worst critic than be making excuses all the time,” he said.
He will be racing for wins and will gamble if need be.
“It’ll be exciting,” said Theriault.