Amid sea of winners, Kuhn takes overall PASS 400 victory

Rarely does a season finale celebrate four different winners in a day. But the Pro All Stars Series’ uniquely-formatted PASS 400 managed exactly that.

While Mike Rowe, Eddie MacDonald and Johnny Clark all broke long winless streaks in the day’s three PASS North features, Ryan Kuhn took the overall win for the prize purse.

And after their frontstretch celebrations, D.J. Shaw extended a streak of his own, as he was crowned PASS North champion for a third straight year.

One of the crown jewels of the Oxford Plains Speedway and PASS schedules, the PASS 400 was not originally slated to be the season finale this year, but rain pushed the September event all the way to the end of the calendar.

Modeled after last year’s Vermont Milk Bowl-inspired event, the titular race distance was divvied up into two 100-lap features and one 200-lap feature to end the race weekend. While the bulk of the prize purse would be paid out to the best overall finishers across all three races, each race would be scored separately, creating three races’ worth of points to settle the series’ 26th championship battle.

To accommodate drivers who raced in Saturday’s Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour finale at Seekonk Speedway, Super Late Model activities were condensed into a single-day program. Trevor Sanborn, Mike Rowe, and Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. each scored heat race wins, with Rowe and Eddie MacDonald slotting onto the front row for the first 100-lap segment.

Rowe held the lead early, but Renfrew charged from 12th on the grid to fifth only five laps in. Chasing the vaunted “Angels’ Expressway” in the outside groove, Renfrew took third a few laps later, with Rowe’s son Ben closing in on the lead when the yellow flag flew on lap 32.

Renfrew took second on the restart, but with Ben Rowe keeping him occupied, the elder Rowe stretched his advantage out front. Gabe Brown, fresh from a runner-up finish at Seekonk on Saturday, and Alexendre Tardif joined the party at the front of the field as Rowe continued to set the pace.

Outside polesitter MacDonald fell off the leaders’ pace in the second half, plummeting through the field while Johnny Clark and Shaw battled just outside the top five. Renfrew, who looked unbeatable in the early laps, faded through the top five as Brown and Tardif settled into second and third.

Instead, it was Rowe who was unbeatable in the first segment, leading every lap to take his first PASS North win since last June.

Brown, incensed with Tardif over the way they battled during the segment, came in second with Tardif on his heels. Kuhn and Ben Rowe rounded out the top five.

Rowe’s win was his 158th feature victory at Oxford, another feather in the cap of a season in which the hall-of-famer earned the Oxford track championship just weeks after his 76th birthday. With Rowe openly considering retirement, the 2015 PASS North champion was setting himself up for a walk-off.

Official Results
PASS North | PASS 400, Segment 1
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (24) Mike Rowe
2. (47) Gabe Brown
3. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
4. (72) Ryan Kuhn
5. (5) Ben Rowe

A twenty-car invert put MacDonald on the outside pole for segment two, alongside 2026 PASS 400 segment winner Sylas Ripley. “The Outlaw” took charge from the drop of the green, while Renfrew once again surged from 14th on the grid to the top ten in only nine laps.

MacDonald soon had company in the form of ACT regular Jesse Switser. The Vermont native, who only had two prior PASS starts entering the weekend, drove past MacDonald on lap 13 to take the lead, all while Renfrew climbed to sixth. 

Reigning Oxford 250 champion Brandon Barker rode the high line around Ripley to take third on lap 40, with Renfrew and Brown bearing down on the top four. While Barker and Renfrew traded shots for third, MacDonald went to work on Switser, pulling ahead to lead lap 56.

Shackled by tire strategy and a lack of caution flags, the first-segment contenders were unable to make up time on MacDonald, who held on for his seventh career PASS North trophy in a feature that took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Switser crossed the line a career-best second in only his fourth official PASS start. Renfrew won the battle for third handily, with Kuhn fourth and Brown fifth.

MacDonald’s win was his first PASS North checkered flag since early 2024 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Rowley, Mass. veteran’s eighth win at Oxford was also his first since 2018. His prior seven wins at the track, including both his Oxford 250 triumphs in 2009 and 2010, were in ACT Late Models.

First-segment winner Rowe finished 19th, nearly where he started, making Kuhn and Brown the early favorites for the overall PASS 400 victory.

Official Results
PASS North | PASS 400, Segment 2
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (17MA) Eddie MacDonald
2. (25) Jesse Switser
3. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
4. (72) Ryan Kuhn
5. (47) Gabe Brown

With minimal carnage in the first two segments, the grid for the VoteReady.com 200 was far less battle-scarred than last year’s third-segment lineup. Johnny Clark and Rowe lined up on the front row with Travis Stearns and Sanborn third and fourth. Shaw, after quiet runs in the first two segments, lined up eighth with the championship still up for grabs.

Stearns found his way to the lead early as rookie Cole Robie made quick moves from ninth on the grid. By lap 23, when Logan Melcher and T.J. Brackett went around in turn two, Robie had clawed his way to second with Stearns showing the way.

Back under green, Robie and Stearns squared off for the lead as those restarting deeper in the pack tried to make their own way forward. Lee USA Speedway winner Joey Doiron was vexed with Corey Bubar, who kept Doiron bottled up even as Switser found a way around the duo. Second-segment winner MacDonald was holding up the leaders, with Stearns finally clearing “The Outlaw” on lap 65.

Tire management across the 400-lap distance began to rear its head on the long green-flag stretch, as even lightning-fast Renfrew faded into the grasp of Stearns and Robie. Robie nabbed the lead in traffic, then nearly lost it to Stearns as they passed Renfrew on lap 91.

Sanborn and former Oxford track champion Scott McDaniel closed in on Stearns for second, with the four leaders under a blanket at halfway. Out front, Robie was setting a frenetic pace under green, lapping Barker, Doiron, and even Shaw by lap 120.

But Robie’s patience was tested as he caught Ben Rowe. On lap 140, he sent the veteran around, bringing out a yellow flag most of the field was hoping for.

Only ten cars remained on the lead lap. Shaw earned the free pass, but in gaining his lap back under yellow, he could not stop for tires while the rest of the field pitted.

With lapped cars and lead-lap cars intertwined for the restart, Clark powered to the point, opening a gap ahead of Robie and Mike Rowe. Renfrew and Ben Rowe charged past Clark, but both were still a lap down. Shaw, trapped on old tires under the last caution, fell quickly into their clutches, losing a lap under green as Clark showed the way.

Robie remained in pursuit, but trouble caught up with the rookie on lap 179, as he went around off turn two in the path of a lap-down Doiron. Doiron tagged Robie’s door, dealing race-ending damage to Doiron’s car.

Sanborn and Rowe shadowed Clark for the restart, but the seven-time PASS champ held the lead for two short laps before Barker went around with an assist from Shaw, bringing the caution back out with 18 laps to go.

Tardif assumed second in the closing laps, but the Quebecer had no answers for Clark, who became the third driver to score his first win of the year on the last weekend of the season.

Clark’s win in the VoteReady.com 200, his first since last September, broke the shortest dry spell of all three winners. The Hallowell, Me. veteran’s fourth win at Oxford was also the 50th PASS North victory of his career.

Tardif settled for second, with Sanborn third and Mike Rowe fourth. Kuhn squeaked into the top five, with only Switser, McDaniel, Dave Farrington, Jr. and early leader Stearns left on the lead lap. MacDonald rounded out the top ten, the first car a lap in arrears.

Official Results
PASS North | PASS 400, VoteReady.com 200 (Segment 3)
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (54) Johnny Clark
2. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
3. (44) Trevor Sanborn
4. (24) Mike Rowe
5. (72) Ryan Kuhn

While three feature winners had been awarded on the day, there was still an overall PASS 400 winner to celebrate. And with top-five finishes in all three stages, Kuhn was crowned the overall winner of the 2026 PASS 400.

The 2022 PASS North champion from East Bridgewater, Mass., one of the drivers who had driven up from Seekonk overnight, had not won a PASS feature since 2024. Kuhn competed in the Vermont Milk Bowl several years ago, but said the experience with the format was not a big factor.

“It just kind of fell into place for us, really,” he said. “We had a really good car, we were able to drive through the field. The segments were a lot longer, and you had to be a little more cautious about your tires, to really manage it, to have tires left for the last stage. So a lot of it was just management, trying to keep the tires underneath me, including the last stage. And I feel like that really played into my hands.”

The win does not officially snap Kuhn’s own dry spell, but it infuses his team with momentum as they come to terms with the Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis they debuted earlier this year.

“It’s been an interesting transition,” said Kuhn, who previously raced Fury and Distance chassis. “And I appreciate everything that Dale and D.J. and everyone at Dale Shaw Race Cars has done. It’s really good right now, but you know, it could always be better. And me and D.J. and his crew will go back and forth, and make a plan for next year, and hopefully come back even stronger.”

After entering the Oxford 250 without a top-ten finish since April, Kuhn has not finished worse than seventh. Kuhn also made spot ACT starts for the Reinbold Motorsports team, running well at Lee and Seekonk before encountering trouble in both races.

“I have so much confidence going into next year,” he said of both operations. “And honestly I’m disappointed that this season’s over. Because we’re just starting to get the cars going really good, and boom, the season’s over! It’s just a testament to this team. We’re learning things as we go.”

That means Kuhn stands to end his winless streak for real wherever they go next.

“Between us, Dale, D.J., my dad,” he said, “we’re all really starting to figure things out and hit on things.”

Brown, second at Seekonk on Saturday afternoon and second in the ACT points standings, kept his bridesmaid streak going with a second-place overall finish, scoring 18 points across the three features to Kuhn’s 13. Tardif offset a midpack second-segment finish with podiums in segments one and three, scoring 20 points to place third.

Dave Farrington, Jr. and Renfrew tied for fourth, with Renfrew’s better finish in the third segment giving him the nod.

Shaw finished a discouraging 13th in the final 200-lap segment. His tenth- and ninth-place finishes in the first two segments were only good enough for 11th overall.

But his season-long body of work – two wins in marquee events, 15 top-ten finishes, and no finishes worse than 13th all year – was enough to crown him the PASS North champion for an eighth time and for a third straight season.

Shaw felt that strategy never allowed them to get a good read on the car in the final segment.

“Who knows what we had for a car,” he lamented. “It just didn’t work out situationally. We didn’t get the results to show or even know what we had. We started on 100-lap tires and we went to lap 180 on them, so I’m just glad they were holding air and the car still had fuel in it.”

Nevertheless, Shaw’s 88-point advantage entering the weekend kept him well ahead in the championship battle.

“Proud of the accomplishment, proud of my team,” the 36-year-old Shaw said. “We don’t drop out of races. And that’s why we got this year, that’s why we were able to have a good cushion coming into this. Anything can happen this day, three races like that. Proud of the cushion we built, absorbed a little more of it than I wanted to, but all in all, it doesn’t matter.”

Combined with his three PASS National Championships, Shaw has a series-leading eleven PASS titles to his credit. He sits third on the series’ all-time win list, 15 wins short of Clark’s high-water mark.

Rumors abound regarding the 2027 PASS schedule. Series founder and president Tom Mayberry hinted at some possibilities in a pre-race driver’s meeting, including a possible return to Quebec for the first time in many years. A continued relationship with ACT, which dictates a number of co-promoted events on the schedule, will go hand-in-hand with any announcements; for its part, ACT has hinted at a schedule drop before Thanksgiving.

For now, the series’ teams and tracks can throttle down for the fall, even if Ryan Kuhn would prefer not to.

Official Results (Combined Finishing Positions from 3 Segments)
PASS North | PASS 400
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (72) Ryan Kuhn
2. (47) Gabe Brown
3. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
4. (23) Dave Farrington, Jr.
5. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
6. (24) Mike Rowe
7. (44) Trevor Sanborn
8. (25) Jesse Switser
9. (54) Johnny Clark
10. (17MA) Eddie MacDonald
11. (60) D.J. Shaw
12. (5) Ben Rowe
13. (14) Scott McDaniel
14. (88) Brandon Barker
15. (153) Travis Stearns
16. (29) Cole Robie
17. (12V) Brandon Varney
18. (09) Sylas Ripley
19. (12X) Corey Bubar
20. (73D) Joey Doiron
21. (61) T.J. Brackett
22. (5C) Dominic Curit
23. (8) Dennis Spencer, Jr.
24. (41) Logan Melcher
25. (72R) Scott Robbins
26. (60B) Tim Brackett
27. (5VT) Pat Corbett

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