Theriault wins in ARCA debut at Michigan - Speedway Digest

Austin Theriault muscled his way past Mason Mitchell with 17 laps to go to win at Michigan International Speedway.

The 20-year-old became the first driver in win in his ARCA debut since Alex Bowman at Madison International Speedway in August 2011. Suprisingly enough, Bowman drove for Venturini Motorsports at the time.

“This race and the way I approached this race was very different,” Theriault said after the race. “I had never raced at a track bigger than a mile before. I was very conservative, yet we still finished second in qualifying. That told me we would be okay for the race.”

Theriault tried to side-draft Mitchell as the two made slight contact and the 66 car drove away in the end to score the second win of the year for Venturini Motorsports.

“Once his (Theriault) car hit mine, my day was finished,” he said. “It caved in the whole right side. I felt like we had the car to beat. We had the dominant car all day.”

Mitchell led 65 of the 100 laps before the 98 faded late to settle for a runner-up finish. It was Mitchell’s second runner-up finish in as many weeks and his fifth in the last ten ARCA races.

“We have to look at the big picture,” he said. “I am coming out of here with the point lead. We are just going to stay positive. That first win will come.”

The Iowa driver set a blistering pace early on by jumping out to a 5.6 second lead over Theriault by lap 36.

Both drivers came down pit road around lap 50 and the 98 team had trouble jacking up the one side of the car.

After the cycle of green-flag pit stops, Theriault found himself in the lead by four seconds over Mitchell.

With his second-place finish, Mitchell unofficially leads the points by 30 over Grant Enfinger, who finished eighth in the race.

Justin Allison grabbed a career-best third place finish as John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher rounded out the top five.

Corrigan Oil 200 Top 10

1. #66 Austin Theriault

2. #98 Mason Mitchell

3. #88 Justin Allison

4. #15 John Wes Townley

5. #23 Spencer Gallagher

6. #69 Will Kimmel

7. #44 Frank Kimmel

8. #90 Grant Enfinger

9. #22 Austin Wayne Self

10. #6 Josh Williams

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Kyle Magda

Currently, I’m a journalism student in college who enjoys the sport of racing. I've been following NASCAR in-depth since 2001.Along with my love of racing, I’m also into baseball, football (college & pro), and college basketball.I also have my own website, The Life of Kyle, where I write about various topics.And to get my feet wet into radio, I have my own show called Overdrive. I started it with my friend. Since we can’t record together most of the time, we have our own versions. I cover NASCAR and ARCA, and he takes Formula One and IndyCar.Not forgetting to mention, I have my own YouTube channel as well.As for race tracks, I’ve gone to races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Daytona, Dover, Loudon and a few local short tracks as well. I hope to cross the Indianapolis 500 off my list in the future. I hope to become a man of many hats.