NASCAR Cup Series

Austin Theriault to make Cup debut at Loudon for Ware

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Credit: Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Rick Ware Racing will field two Monster Energy Cup Series newcomers at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A day after announcing Andy Seuss would drive the team’s #51 for his maiden Cup race in July’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, the team revealed on Saturday that Austin Theriault will pilot the #52, also in his series début. Like Seuss, the New Hampshire race will be a home track event for Theriault, a native of Maine.

“I’ve been working extremely hard to get the opportunity to race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series,” Theriault said in a team release. “I remember sitting in the NHMS grandstands and watching my favorite driver, Mark Martin, win the last race of his Cup career in 2009. It never crossed my mind, that I would have the opportunity to make my Cup debut at a track that means so much to my family and I. The support we’ve received from New England is humbling, and I’m excited to say I’ll be debuting with the support of New England based companies.”

The 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Most Popular Driver and 2017 ARCA Racing Series (now ARCA Menards Series) champion, Theriault ran his first NASCAR national series start in what is now the Xfinity Series in 2014 with JR Motorsports, finishing fifteenth at Iowa Speedway. The following year, he began running part-time in the current-Gander Outdoors Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing, recording four top-ten finishes in a nine-race schedule. He made further sporadic starts in the series over the 2016 and 2018 seasons. In 2017, he won the ARCA championship with a seven-win campaign for Ken Schrader Racing.

In 2019, he failed to qualify for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway for RBR Enterprises. His lone Truck start of 2019 to date is a twenty-second-place finish at Martinsville Speedway.

“We are proud to be giving deserving drivers their chance, and RWR has been fortunate to give some outstanding drivers their chance in the Cup Series over the years,” RWR owner Rick Ware commented. “We are just as excited to see Austin Theriault showcase his talents on this big stage. We have been following Austin’s career and are thrilled to have him in the Bangor Savings Bank No. 52 at New Hampshire.”

RWR’s #52 has seen a multitude of drivers in 2019, including Cody Ware, B.J. McLeod, Bayley Currey, Jeb Burton, Stanton Barrett, J.J. Yeley, and Josh Bilicki. Currey is driving the car for Sunday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway. After 16 races in 2019, the #52 is thirty-eighth in the owner’s championship.

On Twitter, Theriault posted:

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Justin is not an off-road racer, but he writes about it for The Checkered Flag.
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