Theriault, Schrader Racing Win ARCA Opener At Daytona

Austin Theriault scored the victory in Saturday’s ARCA Racing Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Photo: ARCA Media

Multi-car wrecks, red flags and six cautions could not keep ARCA Racing Series championship contender Austin Theriault from finding his way to victory lane at Daytona International Speedway.

Theriault, in Ken Schrader’s No. 52 Chevrolet, kept himself up front most of the way and, as a result, out of harm’s way to win the action-packed Lucas Oil 200 Saturday afternoon.

Theriault, who led just four laps, drove around the outside of Terry Jones on lap 73, and then held on up through lap 75, which ended up being long enough to win when the race officially ended five laps shy of the intended distance.

“Just an amazing effort from my guys…Ken Schrader Racing brought a great Orlando Longwood Auto Auction Chevrolet,” said Theriault. “I think we would have won even if we would have gone back to green…our car was that strong.”

However, the race didn’t go back to green as a result of damage to the safer barrier that required repairs that would have taken longer to fix than the series’ allotted time.

With sprinkles in the air, Jones finished second after leading 25 laps, more laps than anyone else.

“I was praying for rain late in the race,” said Jones. “This was my best superspeedway finish. We had a good clean run…stayed up front all day and out of trouble. It would have been so cool to bring the trophy back to Canada. We were just a few laps from winning. We’re not done trying, I’ll tell you that.”

As a single car team, Theriault, who started ninth, had to rely on help from some of his fiercest competitors.

“The Cunningham cars (Shane Lee and Dalton Armstrong) helped a lot today and played a strong part in getting us to the front. I thought the 25 (Tom Hessert) did a great job…he pushed us along on the outside. We just had a really strong car all day, especially with good cars behind us. Gained a couple spots on pit road…had a lot of help on the track and we put ourselves in position to win. Me and Kenny (Schrader) are excited to get to the phones and see if we can make something happen. Our focus is to run for the ARCA championship and we made that clear tonight.”

Cunningham Motorsports teammates Shane Lee and Dalton Sargeant had a productive night, finishing third and fourth respectively.

“Overall, our car was really good,” said Lee. “It was really fast with the 25 and 30. We got stuck in a few lines that weren’t working so we had to side-draft a little more than usual but we can’t complain…this is a great way to start off the season. The General Tires were great and we didn’t slide ’em. This is a good night.”

Sargeant finished fourth.

“This is pretty special to come to Daytona with a new Cunningham Motorsports team and come out with a top-five,” said Sargeant. “This is my first Daytona race…you definitely side-draft a lot more than you do at Talladega. Had a lot of fun. Overall, a good night and a solid night for the championship. Fortunately, we were ahead of all those wrecks.”

Polesitter Tom Hessert finished fifth after leading the first 21 laps.

Six caution periods and three multi-car crashes mixed up the order throughout the race, including one on lap 75 that resulted in Justin Fontaine getting upside on the frontstretch. Fontaine was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Despite nearly half the field sustaining some level of damage, all drivers were evaluated and released with the exception of Fontaine.

Bret Holmes, Stockbridge, Georgia’s Ricky Sanders, Kyle Weatherman, Clint King and Kaz Grala rounded out the top ten.

The next race for the ARCA Racing Series is the Music City 200 at Tennessee’s Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville on April 8.

ARCA Racing Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Lucas Oil 200 – Feb. 18, 2017

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