May 23, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

With all the hoopla surrounding last weekend’s Nextel All-Star race, I decided to venture out to the local track and follow up with a driver I have been following for a few years, Michelle Theriault.

If you have read any of my past stories on Women in Racing, Michelle was one of the first I wrote about. Back then, she was a 4.0 GPS, NHS student and an 18 year-old college freshman holding down a job as a Hooter’s ProCup Series driver.

Michelle started competing in Quarter Midgets and racked up 200 wins, as the only female competitor in the series and was a five-time runner up in the Quarter Midgets of America National Championship.

After seven years, she started competing in Legends Cars, where she won Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Thunder Racing Legends Championship and earned the distinction of becoming the first female Legends Car Champion. She backed up her success with two more championships and more than 20 wins. After three years of Legends Car success, Theriault moved up to the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series, Pro-Late Model Division at Lanier National Speedway. She also participated in the Ford Driver Development program and was featured in the CMT reality series, The Drive.

Michelle Theriault * Photo Chuck Abrams

In 2004, Theriault started competing in the USAR Hooters ProCup Series and became the first female competitor to qualify for the season ending National Championship.

So, it was about time I caught up with her again since she had made the jump from ProCup to the Busch East Series this year. And not only did she make the jump, she also brought along her new sponsor Glock www.teamglock.com. Glock teamed up with Michelle in her last season of ProCup racing and were so impressed by her talent and desire, that they were 100% onboard with the decision and stepped up their program and commitment to her.

As a rookie in the Busch East series, she has the privilege of competing with the likes of 16-year old Joey Lagano, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Sean Caisse, Chase Austin and others.

While you may hear of these names more often than hers right now it is because they belong to teams that have Nextel Cup experience backing such as Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Rusty Wallace, Inc., Ginn Racing -- you get the picture. But make no mistake about it, Michelle is as determined as ever to make her mark with Spraker Racing Enterprises.

The inaugural Minnesota 150 on at Elko Speedway on May 18 was a Busch East-West combo race and featured 46 teams vying for 30 places on the paved 3/8-mile track. Coming off of a top 10 finish at Greensville in her first Busch East race and a top 25 finish in her first mile-and-a-half ARCA race at Kentucky, Michelle was more than ready to go.

One of the first cars out, she placed 7th in early qualifying in the warm Minnesota sun. As the temperatures fell and the track cooled, cars started running faster and Michelle’s time was strong enough to start 19th.

Glock Sponsorship * Photo Chuck Abrams

In the early running, it appeared her car was better on the long run, although a few early cautions tested that ability. Obviously faster than the cars around her, Michelle’s patience was tested early and often.

By lap 33, we could all see that many of the cars were not going to wait until lap 100 to get racy – and by lap 35 there was another spin out in front of Michelle and she got through in fine form -- to work her way up to 16th.

Lap 51 produced another wreck that brought out the red flag. Again Michelle’s patience worked in her favor keeping her out of trouble. At the lap 55 restart, she was 15th and getting noticed.

Michelle was still stronger than cars around her, but not as stout as some of the larger backed teams. A good restarter, Theriault quickly made up more ground and avoided trouble while other drivers seemed bent on destruction.

By lap 75 she was up to 13th place and the car was handling well in the corners. Her patience and short track experience were really paying off. But a series of cautions seemed to back her up a bit allowing some faster cars to start beating on her. She held on to her position but wisely gave ground when it became available to her. By lap 99, she had fallen back to 16th and was being pushed by Hernandez and Earnhardt -- who had found trouble early on in the race.

The 37 Team Glock Chevy seemed to come to life in the waning laps and Michelle held off several challengers through a late string of cautions. She soon found herself back up into 13th place and pressing for the top 10.

A late caution involving Robert Humphreys and others found Michelle in 10th place at lap 148. The restart was a green/white/checkers finish where she held off a charging Earnhardt, among others, to grab her second top 10 run.

We went back to the hauler with Michelle’s proud parents, David and Denise, and folks form Team Glock to congratulate an exhausted Michelle.

But like all good NASCAR marketing machines, Michelle was quickly out in front of the gathered fans signing autographs.

“This race…” said her father “…she won with her head. Greensville, she won with the car. This one was with her head. She ran a smart race.” And a patient one at that.

As the man who took that fateful meeting with David Theriault, Ed Fitzgerald of Glock says they “Couldn’t be happier” with their sponsorship of Michelle in the 37 Team Glock Chevy. The fateful phone call and Michelle’s personality won the day at Glock and a sure-fire partnership was born. Glock backed up their commitment with a very nice trailer for Team Glock, complete with a pistol-wielding Michelle on the rear door.

Michelle sits 7th in the Busch East standings and is 4th in the Rookie of the Year standing even after a disappointing 26th place finish at Iowa.

After the evening’s fans dissipated, the hauler was loaded and it was time to say goodbye to the family Theriault as they made their way south to Iowa for the Sunday night race in Newton, IA. Hugs, congratulations and good wishes luck followed Team Glock out of the Elko parking lot. We felt that we had met a special young woman and made some new friends in the racing community.

If you want to follow Michelle’s career, check out her site at www.michellethriault.com, www.eastseries.com and visit www.teamglock.com for some awesome racing gear and information on one cool handgun. I do have to say, many, many fans were asking about where I got my cool hat that evening. Thank you David for making me look good.

We will be following Michelle closely, we hope you do to.

The Minnesota 150 will be televised on the SPEED channel on May 30th.

That’s my take. Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at his forum at www.turnleftracing.com/forums or email him at Insider Racing News and at Turn Left Racing.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.