A day that will be remembered forever for Windham, Maine’s Brandon Barker, winning the Oxford 250 in his ninth attempt after a long, cool, wet, and late night at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Barker had to take a moment after his victory lap around the speedway, early Monday morning, to soak it all in. That he was an Oxford 250 winner.
After wiping away his tears of joy in the seat, Barker climbed atop of the car to celebrate an emotional win.
“I have a lot of people to thank,” Barker said. “I couldn’t do this without so many people. My parents couldn’t afford it. People like Jimmy, Sam and Jaimy Snow, Sam Snow Construction. Archie St. Hilaire, the guys at Landshark Performance, Kyle, Eric, Mikey. A good day for me at the 250 is maybe a top ten, but being able to work with these guys. They just boost my confidence so much and the cars are just so good. It’s surreal right now, but I think we have a lot of beer in the cooler. So I’ll probably see the sun come up. But, I’m just so thankful for DLM, Maietta Towing, Landshark Performance, and my wife.”
Coming home in second was Johnny Clark, finishing second after starting 17th on the grid. Clark didn’t believe he deserved the podium finish.
“We didn’t have a second place car, but the guys pulled off an unbelievable pit stop,” Clark exclaimed. “We went in the pits, they kept telling, my brother was telling me, ‘you just have to maintain, maintain’. We put two tires on whenever everyone hit pit road on Lap 94. We put rears on, and the thing was brutal tight. But, it started to come around, and then the rain came, and we didn’t know what the track was going to do, but I can tell you, it tightens up real bad. I felt like I was a sitting duck on the outside and we fell back to 12th. My crew helped me though, DJ (Shaw) was the only one who beat us out of the pits, its all to them. That’s why we’re standing here with a second place finish. I can’t thank them enough.”
Joey Doiron would come home in third place, after starting 27th on the grid for the 250. Doiron was very apologetic about the incident after a late race incident with DJ Shaw, where he got into Shaw in Turns 1 and 2, spinning Shaw around, and sending Shaw to the rear.
“I really just have to apologize to DJ,” Doiron said. “I just got in there and I hadn’t been loose all day, just got out of the groove, don’t make many mistakes, but made one there. I tried to stay off of him, but we were so close and just, there wasn’t anything I could do. I’ve been on the other end of that before, I’m hoping we can talk that out and see.”
Sunday afternoon started off with unsettled weather, delaying the start of qualifying races and features later in the afternoon.
Starting on the front row of the Oxford 250 was Alexendre Tardif and DJ Shaw, who both won heat races one and two, putting them on the front row.
Winners of heat races three and four, placing them in third and fourth on the starting grid for the 250 was Scott McDaniel and Garrett Hall respectively.
Brandon Barker would start on the front row for his heat race and lead it green to checkers to take the win. That heat race win would award Barker a fifth place starting position for the 250.
Notable drivers who failed to qualify through their heat races were, Caden Kvapil, Casey Roderick, Derek Griffith, Joey Doiron, Mike Rowe, and Mike Hopkins. Of that list, everyone would make it into the Oxford 250 through the consolation races or last chance race.
The start of the Oxford 250 started off smoothly, with DJ Shaw and Alexendre Tardif bringing the field to the green.
Early on, Shaw jumped out front and led the charge. By Lap 30, Shaw and the leaders were in the thick of the back end of the field, putting cars down a lap.
The top four leaders were under a blanket as they caught lap traffic, with Shaw, Garrett Hall, Tardif, and Gabe Brown, all nearly nose to tail in the middle of lapped traffic.
Shaw would maneuver through the chaos and remain the leader, but would eventually be caught by Brown who had an engine change earlier Sunday afternoon.
Brown would take the lead away from Shaw on Lap 70 and begin to pull away fro Shaw and the top five.
The first caution would fly on Lap 95, as Ben Rowe would clip a slowing Skip Stanley on the front stretch, ending both of their days early.
Under caution, Derek Griffith would get the free pass after going down a lap after he started deep in the field after coming through the consolation race.
With this caution, the majority of the field came down pit road for adjustments, fuel, and tires. Brown, Garett Hall, Scott McDaniel, and Josh St. Clair would stay out, while everyone else pitted and took two tires and fuel.
On the following restart, another caution would come out quickly two laps later, this time an incident in Turn 3 and Turn 4, ending the days for Kaiden Fisher and Travis Stearns, while also collecting Ben Tinker and Cole Robie.
Gabe Brown remained the leader through more cautions over a period of 20 laps, with the caution on Lap 116 being impactful. Jimmy Renfrew Jr. would get into Alexendre Tardif, leading to Tardif spinning around. Renfrew Jr. would be penalized and be put to the rear of the field after making his way to second place.
Brown would continue to lead on the restart with Brandon Barker in second, DJ Shaw in third.
Then the rain came on Lap 126, with heavy rain wetting the track in turns three and four, leading to multiple cars spinning, but no major contact. Cars were brought down pitroad and the rain delay would last around two hours and a half.
When the red flag was lifted and pit road was opened, Brown would pit, as well Bubba Pollard who had his hood up for adjustments.
Brandon Barker would take over as the leader, with DJ Shaw in second, followed by Johnny Clark, Ryan Kuhn, and Joey Doiron, with 124 laps to go.
Caution would quickly fly at Lap 131, as Caden Kvapil would spin in Turn 2, but avoid any contact or visible damage.
Another caution would fly at Lap 146, this time for heat race winner Scott McDaniel with issues coming to a slow pace.
Under this caution, Brown would head down pit road, where his team had jack stands out as they went to work on first the right rear, then the left rear. A link bolt failure in the rear would be the issue for Bobby Webber Racing team. It would be an extended period of time on pit road for Brown, leading to him going down two laps.
Another caution would fly on Lap 149 for another incident involving Scott McDaniel, as he went around in Turn 3.
With this caution and nearing 100 laps to go, more drivers elected to come down pit road, including Tardif, Shaw, and Garrett Hall.
Barker would bring the field back to green, fending off DJ Shaw and those trailing him. At Lap 150, it was Barker leading, followed by DJ Shaw, Eddie MacDonald, Joey Doiron, and Ryan Kuhn.
Laps would continue to go by, until another incident occurred, this time occurring right in front of the leaders, with Eddie MacDonald going around, but avoided contact.
On the restart, Shaw would continue to lead through Lap 200, then a caution would fly with 46 laps to go. This time for Eddie MacDonald going around after making contact.
Several drivers would head down pitroad, including Shaw, Barker, Kuhn, Kvapil, Farrington, and Sanborn. A few cars would stay out, Bubba Pollard as the leader and Alexandre Tardif in second.
On the ensuing restart, a lapped car, Scott McDaniel would start to the inside of Pollard. Heading into Turn 1 on the restart, Cory Hall would shove his nose to the inside McDaniel, resulting in McDaniel getting in to race leader Pollard.
This would lead to yet another caution, as Pollard would loop it around and show displeasure with Cory Hall after the incident, as Cory Hall was sent to the rear.
Alexendre Tardif would take over as the leader for the following restart, followed by Garrett Hall in second.
This restart, with 46 laps to go would be pivotal. Brandon Barker restarted ninth, but he was searching around to make a move, and did just that on Lap 205.
Barker would go three wide in the middle, splitting multiple drivers in the top ten and top five. In just one lap, Parker would go from ninth to third.
The caution would fly once more with 40 to go, this time involving DJ Shaw and Joey Doiron. Doiron was battling handling issues and clipped Shaw in turns one and two. Doiron would retain his position and was not given a penalty.
Two more cautions would fly for minor incidents with 25 and 11 laps to go. With 11 laps to go, Barker remained out front and in control of the field.
Barker would go on to close out the race, winning his first ever Oxford 250 win, with Johnny Clark finishing second, and Joey Doiron rounding out the podium.
QUICK Results from the 53rd Annual Oxford 250:
Name, laps completed
- Brandon Barker 250
- Johnny Clark 250
- Joey Doiron 250
- Ryan Kuhn 250
- Alexandre Tardif 250
- Matthew Bourgoine 250
- DJ Shaw 250
- Trevor Sanborn 250
- Sylas Ripley 250
- Ryan Littlefield 250
- Josh St. Clair 250
- Casey Roderick 250
- Dominic Curit 250
- Derek Griffith 250
- Brandon Varney 250
- Garrett Hall 250 250
- Calvin Rose 250
- Tom Abele Jr. 250
- Kevin Douglas 250
- Cory Hall 250
- Cole Robie 250
- Michael Lavoie 250
- Mike Rowe 248
- Gabe Brown 248
- Corey Bubar 247
- Kyle Salemi 247
- Troy patterson 244
- Scott McDaniel 244
- Dave Farrington 238
- Caden Kvapil 219
- Eddie MacDonald 210
- Bubba Pollard 207
- Jimmy Renfrew Jr. 126
- Mike Hopkins 123
- TJ Brackett 96
- Travis Stearns 95
- Kaiden Fisher 95
- Ben Tinker 95
- Kate Re 94
- Ben Rowe 94
- Skip Stanley 92
- Timmy Brackett 18
