In his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) start of the season, Austin Theriault earned a top-20 finish in Saturday afternoon’s Texas Roadhouse 200.
The Young’s Motorsports team battled the handling on their No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet Silverado throughout the day on Friday and in the early stages of the final short track race of the season.
Despite qualifying 27th on Saturday morning at Martinsville, Theriault didn’t stay there. Quickly picking off a few positions at the start of the race, Theriault settled into 25th while hunting down his competitors ahead while the race took an uncharacteristic green flag look.
Just ninety seconds from the event’s first caution on Lap 50, Theriault fell off the lead lap after Johnny Sauter passed the No. 02 Chevrolet a few laps prior to the yellow flag.
Opting to utilize strategy, crew chief Andrew Abbott elected to keep his driver on the track and take the wave around putting the No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet Silverado back on the lead lap, but short on fuel and tires compared to others around him.
When racing resumed on Lap 59, the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team was hopeful for a quick caution to see their gutsy call pay off – but the event went caution-free for a staggering 48 laps until Spencer Gallagher crashed in Turn 2 trapping them again a lap down.
Knowing they needed tires, fuel and an adjustment to correct Theriault’s tightness in his truck, the Young’s Motorsports team bolted on tires, fuel and make a chassis adjustment to help combat his inability to get off each corner to his liking.
Green flag racing resumed on Lap 116 with Theriault not only trying to make a dent in track position, but also trying to fight to be the first truck one lap down. The team would get their wish on a Lap 163 caution for a two-truck incident in Turn 1.
Back on the lead lap, Theriault once again pitted for service and lined up at the tail end of the field.
With 30 laps left in the race, Theriault climbed inside the top-20 and make a move towards the top-15 when a punt from another competitor sent the No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet out of the groove and losing valuable track position.
With the limited number of laps to recover, Theriault claimed 20th at the checkered flag.
Austin Theriault Quote:
“I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to drive for Young’s Motorsports this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. We worked hard on our No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet throughout the weekend. We made some significant gains and I’m proud of that.
“We didn’t get the qualifying run we wanted so that put us in the back and we were trying to play catch-up from there. When we went a lap down the first time, we went into defense mode and got back on the lead lap, but the lack of cautions hurt us from an offense standpoint where we could pit and make some gains through the field.
“When we did get back on the lead lap, we were working our way again through the pack and got botted out of the bottom groove and the track position we gained was all for not. That’s Martinsville I guess. I just wished at the end of the day we would of had a better showing. Our truck was much better than 20th.”
Young Motorsports PR
