76-year-old, Mike Rowe wins eighth super late model championship

Over the last several decades, there have been legendary names to make laps at Oxford Plains Speedway, like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, and Richie Evans to name a few.

At the end of the day though, there is only one true king. “The King” of Oxford, and that’s Mike Rowe, capturing an eighth super late model championship at Oxford, his first since 1990. As Rowe continues to pad his stats, who was already inducted into the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2014.

For the 76-year-old Mike Rowe, this championship wasn’t expected, but he doesn’t believe it happened because of him, but because of the supporters and team behind him.

“Really great at my age,” Rowe said. “We started the year and weren’t going to run all year and then we started doing pretty good, but it’s not all me. It’s my crew that gave me a good car that made us stay there and do a good job, so, it takes more than a driver to get a championship and I owe it all to my crew.” 

The relationship between Rowe and the Caruso Fowler Racing team has been more like family, winning multiple championships at Beech Ridge, and now their first together at Oxford.

“They’re like family to us, Dickie, Mikey, Travis Caruso. I mean, all them guys,” a grateful Rowe said. “They work on the car all the time and go to the track. It looks good, it’s all about them and really not a whole lot with me. I just go out there and have fun, but they do all the work and it really should be all about them, not me.” 

Dick Fowler, one of the team owners of Caruso Fowler Racing, enjoyed the 2026 season and getting another championship with Rowe.

“It means a lot, Mike is getting towards the end of his career, and I’m not going to say that he’s at the end, because the guy still has the talent,” Fowler said. “He has the ability to keep racing next year or two years or whatever. It’s a real pleasure working with somebody like him, because he’s part of the family really. This is our third championship with Mike. We won two others at Beech Ridge with Mike as our driver.” 

Fowler and Rowe both hadn’t planned to run a full season at Oxford, but that changed.

“We didn’t plan on running for the championship at Oxford this year,” Fowler said. “We just said we’ll go up and get prepared for the Oxford 250. Then we happened to run against Brandon Barker, and they were on the same page. Then we were in the Oxford 250, same page as Barker, and it worked out good for him, but we had a $600 part that broke in the 250. Mike and Brandon had a chance to run for the championship. We ended up winning the championship and he(Brandon Barker) ended up winning the Oxford 250. It was a lot of fun because I know them guys, they worked as hard as we did.” 

Fowler has been just as impressed as others with what Mike Rowe is accomplishing, with Rowe still working during the week.

“Every day the guy is a workaholic,” Fowler said. “Seven days a week, and that’s what keeps him in shape, and he’ll tell you. You know, everybody else goes fishing and hunting and all that stuff, but racing is his game. He puts 110% in every day.”

Mike Rowe first started racing at Oxford Plains Speedway in the 1960s, racing over five decades now, the championships, three Oxford 250 wins, and 157 wins so far, his favorite career moments have been those coveted 250 wins.

“That’s my home track, and to win the Oxford 250s is really good,” Rowe said. “We felt good going into this year’s 250. We had a great car. We won the 100 lapper before and we just missed the setup a little bit. That’s part of the racing deal. We just had a few problems and we just chased it all day long, but we ended up coming out on top in the regular season, so I guess that made up for it.” 

This championship though, coming over 30 years after his last Oxford Plains Speedway track championship, has extra value to him.

“This ranks right up on the top, as old as I am,” Rowe explained. “You don’t usually get championships, so this ranks right at the top.” 

For many drivers in short track racing, the goal is to win and compete for years or hopefully decades. Rowe’s love for racing drives his motivation to keep climbing into the car on Saturday nights.

“I just love the sport, I just love to race,” Rowe said. “Like I say, when you get a good car, like I have and the crews are keeping it up as good as they are. I know that when we go there, we have a chance at winning. It really gives me incentive to keep racing.” 

In the final race of the season, in a 100-Lap feature event, it came down to the final laps of the season. Rowe and Barker were tied heading into the feature, but Barker would finish right behind Rowe, crowning him as the 2026 champion.

“Brandon, he’s a good little racer,” Rowe said. “If he’d have beat me, that would have been good for him. He followed me for probably 30 laps trying to get around me and my spotter said he couldn’t go to the outside. So I protected the bottom, but he could have moved me at any time, but he didn’t. I’m grateful for him not doing that, he could have done that at any moment. He didn’ t though. So that was really a class act right there.” 

For the 2026 Oxford 250 winner, Brandon Barker, he was okay with who came out on top of the championship.

“If I was to get beat by anyone, it would definitely have to be Mike,” Barker said. “He’s the greatest of all time.”

Fowler enjoyed the championship fight against Barker and the Snow family owned super late model.

“It was a lot of fun because I know them guys, they worked as hot as we did,” Fowler said. “Thankful for the crew, my son, Mikey, he was the crew chief, Travis, who housed the car and the other members, Robbie, and Steven. It was a great team effort.”  

Fowler and the rest of the Caruso Fowler Racing team relished this season, just as much as the fans. As Mike Rowe would show his veteran skills, especially when the third groove was coming in at Oxford.

“Oh, it’s wicked, that’s his groove, really, that’s the Mike Rowe groove,” Fowler said. “It’s hard to win races up there. You know, racing on the bottom of the track. Mikey (Fowler) and Travis, try to hook the car up somewhere, second groove at least, maybe the third groove. And lately there hasn’t been much for third grove, but this summer, it worked well. The plans for the future, I don’t know, whatever Mike wants to do. This will be our last championship run together, you know, because I’m getting up there in age too, and Mike is also, but if he wants to go out there and run 50 laps on a Saturday night or one of the 100 lap races, he’s still got it, and he’s still capable of doing it.” 

With hundreds of races under his belt, covering much of New England, thousands of laps made, hundreds of different competitors, it’s hard for the veteran to nail down the hardest part of racing.

“Oh, I don’t know what is considered the hardest part,” Rowe said. “Just trying to be there every week and then trying to win it all the time, it’s probably the hardest, and we just take what we can get and go on.” 

When looking forward, Rowe is unsure of his plans for 2027, but he remains forever thankful for the crew on the Caruso Fowler Racing team, as they have one more race together in 2026.

“It takes more than a driver to win a championship, it takes everybody, the sponsors, the crew, everybody too to win a championship,” Rowe said. “I’m not sure right now, we’re going to race the PASS 400 in a couple weeks and I can probably think about it after that. Right now, it’s up in the air.” 

With the season wrapping up, Rowe appreciates everyone with the Caruso Fowler Racing team and everyone involved.

“Special thanks to Dickie Fowler, Mikey Fowler, Travis Caruso and all my sponsors, you know. All the powers and money and sure, all them, all them sponsors, Varney Insurance, R.N. Craft, Abbie’s Landing Rentals, the Maiettas, Henderson Concrete Construction, and Bob Craft and of course all the crew and all them guys,” Rowe said. 

Mike Rowe and the Caruso Fowler Racing team have at least one more chance in 2026 to get to victory lane. That will be PASS 400 weekend at Oxford, the weekend of September 26-27th. 

Mike Rowe’s Accolades/Stats:

• Eight-time super late model champion at Oxford Plains Speedway (1976,1978-1981, 1989, 1990, 2026)
• Three-time pro-stock series champion at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway (2009, 2010, 2013)
• 1991 Pro Stock Championship at Wiscasset Speedway
• 2015 Pro All-Star Series North Champion
• 2006 Pro All-Star Series South Champion
• 1994 American-Canadian Tour Champion
• 1999 Northeast Pro Stock Association Champion
• Three-time Oxford 250 winner (1984, 1997, 2005)
• Eight ARCA Menards Series wins(NASCAR Busch North Series)
• Four NASCAR North Tour wins(Stroh’s Tour)
• First All-Time in wins at Oxford Plains Speedway with currently 157 wins.
• 22 Pro All-Star Feature(PASS) feature wins
• Nine American-Canadian Tour feature wins.