Fort Kent’s Austin Theriault said he was none the worse for wear after Friday night’s 12th-place finish in the final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, the Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It marked Theriault’s return to racing in the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Ford-150 after a wreck in the Rhino Linings 350 on Oct. 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway resulted in a 10 percent compression fracture in his back that sidelined him for the next four races.
“It was important to get back in the saddle,” said Theriault, who started 18th. “I wasn’t happy with the finish but we stayed out of trouble, we didn’t tear anything up and we didn’t get penalized.
“I wanted to end the season on a high, but based on where I’d been the past six weeks, it was positive,” said Theriault, who felt the truck was worthy of a top-10 finish but he had to fight the handling, “which is normal for that track.”
He said he was “pleasantly surprised” with how his back held up during the race and during the practice and qualifying sessions.
“I didn’t have any soreness and that was good. And things went well from a mental standpoint,” he said.
“It’s normal to have certain things be sore and achy after what I went through. But that’s normal,” added the 21-year-old.
He will continue going to physical therapy and working out to strengthen his back.
Theriault had signed a contract to run 13 truck series races for BKR, for whom he had driven Super Late Model cars previously.
He wound up running nine races and had two top-five and four top-10 finishes. He never finished lower than 14th and wound up in 24th place in the driver points standings. He was the only driver in the top 24 who didn’t run at least 10 races.
“You always want more. I felt like I could have done a better job in a couple of those races,” said Theriault. “We didn’t execute the way we should have. But, all in all, it has been a year of progress and I hope to keep that going.”
Theriault’s teammate, Tyler Reddick, finished second in the driver and owner standings behind Erik Jones. Reddick caused the accident that sidelined Theriault when he lost control of his truck, slid down the track and sideswiped Theriault, which sent the No. 29 truck careening into the outside wall.
Theriault isn’t sure about his future.
Daniel Hemric, who finished seventh in the driver points, has signed on to join BKR and become Reddick’s teammate next season. Both will run a full schedule.
Keselowski has indicated he wants to run a third truck using several drivers and Theriault said he would be interested in that.
“It would be cool to stay with the team,” said Theriault. “Right now, there aren’t any doors that are closed. I’d like to drive in the Xfinity or Truck series. It would be great if I could get a full-time ride.”
He drove three races in the NASCAR Xfinity series for JR Motorsports in 2014.
He will be looking for sponsorship and has hired other people to help him secure sponsors.