Maine’s Theriault Ready To Leave His Mark

Fort Kent's Austin Theriault (left) and Chase Elliott (right) represent two of the young bucks of NASCAR. Theriault is 20-years-old, Elliott is only 18. Theriault races for the first time in the Nationwide Series on Sunday, Elliott is the current points leader in the series.

UPDATE: 8:40PM    Theriault finished 17th in pole qualifying with a speed of 133.866 mph.

Theriault is driving the #5 Chevy Camaro owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. The youngster from Fort Kent was 18th fastest in practice at 132.053 mph.

Chase Elliot, the son of former NASCAR driver Bill Elliott, was fastest in qualifying at 134.690 mph. He is back in Georgia today for his high school graduation and will hop on a plane and head back to Iowa for the race.

NASCAR bought the Iowa track just six months ago and is pumping money and promotion into the short track (.875 mile). ESPN carries the Nationwide Series race live Sunday afternoon at 2pm.