Brown honors “Rowdy” with worst-to-first ACT Pine Tree State 125 win

Gabe Brown wasn’t content to merely show the crowd at Oxford Plains Speedway a Kyle Busch throwback wrap.

Instead, he treated them to the full Kyle Busch experience.

Brown overcame an early penalty to dominate the second half of the Pine Tree State 125, the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour’s only scheduled stop at Oxford this season, on the eve of the 53rd annual Nitro Trailers Oxford 250.

And while Brown was already thinking ahead to Sunday’s race, he was proud of the win in the moment, as well as the performance of his Factory 47 stablemates as he builds his own brand in the Northeast.

“Just really good for business, a one-two finish,” he said, “and just super thankful for all the people that trust me. And looking forward to the next one.”

Busch, the polarizing NASCAR star who passed away unexpectedly in May, won the Oxford 250 in his third and final attempt in 2011. The Las Vegas native led 68 laps and beat Nick Sweet and Austin Theriault in the second-to-last year the marquée event was sanctioned under the ACT rule book.

Brown, who fielded a car for Busch in last year’s Pro All Stars Series Celebration of America 300 and had forged a lasting connection with him in the months to follow, unloaded a car wrapped to commemorate Busch’s 2011 victory, even bearing the Hollywood-inspired numeral Busch embraced as part of his “Rowdy” image.

Despite Brown’s confidence, reinforced by three career ACT wins at Oxford, the Maine oval posed the biggest wildcard to his championship hopes. With 40 cars attempting to qualify and most likely to start, any early trouble threatened to erase the massive lead Brown had opened in the standings over the last two weeks.

Multi-time Oxford winner Derek Gluchacki, making only his second start of 2026, earned the pole with Seekonk Speedway alumnus Ryan Flood alongside. Brown rolled off third, but quickly dispatched Flood to pressure Gluchacki for the lead. On lap four, Brown looked under Gluchacki for the lead entering turn one.

Gluchacki closed the door, but Brown was committed, and suddenly Gluchacki was going the wrong way.

Brown was penalized for the contact, sent to the rear of the 37-car field for the restart.

Flood inherited the lead, but the yellow waved instantly on the restart for a stack-up that handed a few spots back to Brown and Gluchacki. Back under green, Flood took charge as the early leaders picked through traffic. Gluchacki had the harder go of it, losing ground on the high side and then getting swept up into another incident that brought out the yellow on lap 11.

Out front, Flood continued to show the way as heat winner Cole Littlewood gave chase. An unlikely pairing emerged as sixth-place starter Bobby Therrien, driving in relief of Reilly Lanphear, broke free from the pack. Therrien put Lanphear’s Clattenburg-built car through its paces as he secured third place.

Rookie Seth Drown, already showing damage from earlier incidents, soaked the frontstretch with a blown radiator on lap 36, collecting Dillon Moltz, Brockton Davis, fellow rookie Geoff Rollins and others in his wake. Flood and second-place Therrien brought the field around for a restart that was quickly waved off; Therrien pounced on Flood on a second attempt, but a yellow flag froze the field quickly with Therrien in command.

Brown had already clawed his way back into the top ten, restarting ninth.

Therrien led his first laps of the year as Flood was shuffled out of the top five on the restart. CAN-AM 200 winner Kaiden Fisher charged to second, but Therrien pulled away to a comfortable advantage as Brown weaved his way through traffic in their mirrors. With 50 laps complete, Brown was knocking on the door of the top five.

But Craig Smith’s spin in front of Therrien brought out a lap-55 caution, pausing the procession with Brown up to third. Therrien edged ahead of Brown on the restart, with Brown battling the car normally piloted by his girlfriend as he looked for the lead. On lap 61, Brown slipped around Therrien to complete his worst-to-first challenge.

As Fisher and Erick Sands leaned on Therrien for second place, Brown checked out on the pack. Fisher moved through for second, with Bryan Mason and Sands bumping Therrien down the running order. A long green-flag stretch was interrupted briefly by a single-car spin in turn four, but Brown continued to show the way.

Brown soon caught lapped traffic, though, and Fisher quickly closed the gap, coming within just a few car lengths of Brown’s bumper as the yellow flew on lap 109. The restart between Brown and Fisher was quickly waved off, but heated racing behind them sent early leader Flood for a spin in turn one, stacking up the back half of the field.

The pack was re-racked for another attempt, with Brown pulling ahead of Fisher by a whisker. Fisher pressured Brown for the lead, but while he was open to opportunities, he was not about to force them.

And so Brown nipped Fisher by two tenths of a second to take his fourth Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour win of the year and his fourth at Oxford, the track where he first made the transition from go-karts to stock cars.

Brown paid tribute to Busch’s smoky celebrations with his own frontstretch burnout. But after the race, he admitted he thought his shot at the ultimate tribute to Busch was dashed early.

“Kyle wouldn’t admit that that was a stupid mistake, but it was a stupid mistake,” he said. “The way [Gluchacki] went down the frontstretch up high, I felt as if he was gonna give me the lane, and I drove it in there and filled it, and he hauled it for the curb. So I spun him like a friggin’ top, and that was that.

“So we went to the back and just had to use the thing up profusely to get back to the front.”

Though it looked like Brown had the field under his thumb late, it was anything but from the cockpit.

“When we got to the front, there was just nothing left to the thing,” he continued. “It bottomed out terribly and I just had to hang on for life there. Anyone besides Kaiden would have moved me for that win. Just thankful for our relationship, and picking up another win here at Oxford.”

Fisher, who ran his own version of the worst-to-first gambit by winning at Autodrome Montmagny a week after a grinding crash left him scrounging for points at Riverside Speedway, had a much more comfortable run to second.

Bryan Mason held on for a third-place finish, his second top five finish of 2026 and the best ACT performance of his career.

Kuhn’s up-and-down evening ended on an up note with a fourth-place finish for Reinbold Motorsports. Sands finished fifth, only his second top-five finish of 2026, but his second in the last three races after a challenging season.

Shawn Swallow, Littlewood, Aaron Fellows, Jonathan Bouvrette and Flood rounded out the top ten, with Flood picking up his first career ACT top-ten finish.

Gluchacki battled his way back to an eleventh-place finish after the lap-four spin.

Brown was amused—and satisfied—to race girlfriend Reilly Lanphear’s car for the lead with Therrien at the wheel.

“It was cool to see Reilly’s car up front like that,” he said. “I know [father] Mark and the whole family works really hard on their car. It was really cool to race him for the lead and see them lead laps. I know it meant a lot to them.”

But more important to Brown was the continued performance of his Factory 47 operation. A longtime employee of Dale Shaw Race Cars, Brown struck out on his own this year to focus on his own setup strategies. Brown’s key clients are Fisher and Vermont racer Brandon Gray, but he has taken others under his wing as well.

Not that Brown forgot where he comes from. “It’s still Dale Shaw Race Cars,” he said of his chassis. “You see three or four of them in the top five. I’ll stand by, they’re the best you can get for an ACT car right now, but I’m pretty proud of what me and my guys can do at Factory 47 to make them even better.”

So far, Brown and Fisher have won six of this season’s ten ACT races.

“I think we had all of the top five [tonight] at one point, and one car that people don’t really know about,” he said. “Just super thankful for everyone that trusts me.”

Brown’s attention after tech would turn to the Oxford 250 and his ride for Bobby Webber Racing. “The 250 car is really good. We’ve got to cross our ‘T’s and dot all our ‘I’s and make sure it’s good come heat race time, and I feel like we’ve got a solid race car. We’ll see tomorrow. The draw’s everything.”

And after that comes a fourth straight week for the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour, with Brown’s drive for a crown moving on to the Labor Day Classic at Thunder Road. Brown won the Community Bank, N.A. 150 earlier this season, but he laughed when asked about his chances next week.

“Hopefully we can go back to back wins up there,” he said, “but I won’t really count on it.”

Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | Pine Tree State 125
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (47NH) Gabe Brown
2. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
3. (10MT) Bryan Mason
4. (63MA) Ryan Kuhn
5. (36NH) Erick Sands
6. (04NH) Shawn Swallow
7. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
8. (29NH) Aaron Fellows
9. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
10. (98MA) Ryan Flood
11. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
12. (25NH) Jesse Switser
13. (21VT) Bobby Therrien
14. (13QC) Hugo Paquet
15. (68NH) Tanner Woodard
16. (29ME) Cole Robie
17. (15VT) Hayden Bushey
18. (91CT) Jason Corliss
19. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
20. (77AZ) Brandon Lambert
21. (99NH) Stone Slattery
22. (12RI) Bobby Pelland III
23. (5NH) Aiden White
24. (92ME) Colby Meserve
25. (7NH) Cody LeBlanc
26. (4NH) Jamie Swallow, Jr.
27. (13NH) Luke E. Shannon
28. (23NH) Craig Smith
29. (31CT) Travis Hydar
30. (02WP) Geoff Rollins
31. (47ME) Brockton Davis
32. (5ME) Dillon Moltz
33. (88ME) Seth Drown
34. (92VT) Jaden Perry
35. (82NH) Jason Ryan
36. (53NH) Tyler Fiscus
37. (47MA) Justin Storace
DNS (15X) Jay Laquerre
DNS (0NH) Holdyn Sullivan
DNS (91MA) Ayla Martin

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