How Bubba Pollard got to the Oxford 250 after all

Bubba Pollard stood on the frontstretch at Oxford Plains Speedway last Sunday night, minutes before midnight, savoring a second-place finish in the Oxford 250. It was easily his best run since winning the race in his first trip there in 2018.

While supporters and media mobbed race winner Jeff Taylor, people came by to shake Pollard’s hand, to thank him for making the trip.

For only a few weeks before, the iconic New England race had been stricken from Pollard’s August racing schedule.

How he got to Maine, and that he made the trip at all, are simultaneously a testament to the racing community and a reminder that even the sport’s biggest stars are not immune from the frailties of motorsports economics.

And right now, there are fewer short track stars bigger than Pollard. The Senoia, Ga. native, once a Southeast sensation, emerged on the national radar a decade ago, earning wins and accolades, earning respect and derision depending on who he beat and how.

The perception is that Pollard, the short-track all-star, has the resources to race whenever and wherever he pleases.

But the “Redneck Jesus” moniker bestowed upon Pollard only tells the story of the racer at the track, and disregards the working-class, blue-collar, ever-relatable background of the racer away from the track.

“It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it is,” Pollard said.

Pollard’s 2024 season has been anything but easy, with engine failures and wrecks tweaking his schedule week by week. The year hasn’t been all bad; Pollard finished sixth in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Richmond Raceway, and he has plenty of feature wins at his usual stomping grounds. But getting to some of the far-flung locations on the calendar has proven challenging.

“It’s tough to get up and down the road and travel as much,” he said. “We try to get as many places as we can. We’ve had a tough year at the beginning of the year, had a lot of things go wrong.”

And so when Pollard released his planned August itinerary on social media, the Oxford 250 was absent. Pollard first made the trip to Maine in 2018, taking the lead late and holding on for a surprising win in his first attempt. Pollard has attended and qualified for every Oxford 250 since, but that streak appeared to be in jeopardy.

Enter the Black Flagged Podcast.

Hosted by racers and superfans Charlie Sanborn, Brad Saucier and Bobby Timmons, the irreverent motorsports podcast showcases not only the intricacies of the sport, but the social experience at the track. When the hosts caught wind that tire and travel expenses had forced Pollard to put his Oxford 250 plans on ice, Saucier took the lead in announcing a merchandise sales drive, with proceeds going to fund Pollard’s efforts.

A single donor stepped forward to cover most of the projected cost, but additional funds were quickly raised to make Pollard’s trip to Maine a certainty.

“There’s a lot of people that pitched in to make this happen,” Pollard said. “Black Flagged Podcast did a deal and raised some money, and I can’t thank those guys enough.”

Pollard drove his own hauler to Maine, handily winning the long-haul award on a weekend where some teams only drove a few miles to the speedway.

“It’s tough going down the road,” said Pollard. “My guys are volunteer, they gotta take off work, and that’s hard. It is tough but I’m glad we can come up here.”

Pollard met Sanborn, Saucier and Timmons the Friday night before the Oxford 250, chatting candidly for the podcast about his life in racing, his NASCAR experience at Richmond, the camping and partying atmosphere at Oxford, and the challenges of getting to a race like the 250.

Central to that challenge is having a car that can compete. Conceived as an open-competition show in the 1970s, the Oxford 250 has run under the Pro All Stars Series rulebook since 2013. While PASS brands itself a Super Late Model touring organization, the series takes liberties with the usual ABC-prescribed platform. Some measures are geared toward limiting costs throughout the season. Others are targeted toward keeping trick equipment from spoiling the show for regular competitors.

But in the offseason, PASS did away with a post-race frame-height penalty. The sometimes-controversial rule was the reason for many post-race disqualifications, and chassis designed by local fabricators were often constructed with the frame-height rule in mind. While Pollard did not single out the rule by name, it was the key change in the rulebook since last year.

“The biggest thing is they changed the rule package,” he said. “The rule package in years past didn’t benefit us by no means. It’s something we had to come in here and adjust to, at a place that’s already unique and tricky. So with them changing the rule package, it put us back in the ballgame. And that’s why I wanted to come this year so bad, is because I wanted to see what we had with a ‘real’ race car, I call it, instead of the crazy rules.

“But it’s tough not racing with these guys each and every week, and the rule package was so different, it took a lot of changing, and not being accustomed to it, not racing it every week, it was hard to come here and make it happen. We made it happen the first year, but it feels like we got lucky, right?”

So Pollard went back to basics, borrowing a Senneker Performance chassis like the one he drove to victory in 2018.

“This is a friend of mine’s from back home,” he said. “It’s one of my old cars, I think it’s like…we was talking the other day, it might be one of the cars I raced, maybe I won here. We can’t remember. I don’t think it is, but it’s very similar to the car I [ran] back in 2018. This is an ‘18 model, it’s an older car.”

Pollard lamented in his Black Flagged Podcast interview that he had yet to pit on the frontstretch for an Oxford 250. In the dreaded pre-qualifying draw, Pollard drew the fourth starting position in the fourth heat. In his old car, with tires funded from T-shirt and hat sales, Pollard finished second in the heat, earning the ninth spot on the grid and a frontstretch pit stall.

In the race, Pollard worked his way forward, challenging local favorite Joey Doiron for the lead. Working the outside of Doiron, Pollard poked his nose out front to lead lap 69, earning another hundred dollars from the Black Flagged Podcast, who sponsored the token lap. Pollard slipped backwards after a lap-72 restart, pitting on lap 97 before rain halted the race on lap 116.

After a delay to dry the oval, Pollard eventually cycled back into the top five, running second with 100 laps remaining. Pit strategy played out over the next several laps and yellow flags, with the field taking the green on lap 187 for what would be a long run to the checkered flag. D.J. Shaw took the point early, but Pollard’s car was fast on the final run. Pollard caught Shaw and runner-up Jeff Taylor, the three battling for several laps before Taylor found a lane to get past Shaw. Pollard followed suit, moving to second with 25 laps on the scoreboard.

Over the final 25 laps, Pollard pressured Taylor, drew up to his door, but could never find a way around. In his 22nd start in the iconic race, Taylor, the local chassis guru, drove to victory in his only start of the season, in what may be his final attempt at the Oxford 250.

Pollard pulled to a stop on the frontstretch, emerged from his car, and rested his head in his hands on the roof for a moment.

Then he climbed out and intercepted Taylor with a congratulatory handshake as the veteran coasted to his victory celebration.

“To come back and run second to this guy, I mean, that’s just awesome,” Pollard said of his best run since 2018. “Jeff, he’s been doing it a long time, track champion, tried so many years to win this race. He had a good car. Man, I enjoy racing with him. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I wanted to race him how I wanted to be raced, clean, and show him you can race with respect around here, or down south, or anywhere, and have fun and do it classy.

“And I’m glad he could win.”

Pollard, who has voiced his frustration with the driving styles of short track racers elsewhere, was gracious in defeat. And his comments were echoed in the compliments of fans who came up after the race to shake his hand, to thank him for racing their heroes cleanly, for putting on a show, for coming to the show at all.

For some visiting racers, a big regional race is merely another feather in their cap. For all its differences from his usual racing world, Pollard respects the legacy of the Oxford 250.

“This is a race I always want to be a part of, because it is, I mean, the history,” he said. “People back home don’t realize how big this event is, and I’m proud to be a part of it, and [have] won it, and I wish some of those guys would check it out and see it. It’s just as big as the [Snowball] Derby for me. This is the biggest win of my career so far.”

Maine’s race fans are staunchly loyal to their local favorites, quick to defend them in the presence of outsiders. When Cole Butcher went back-to-back in 2022 and 2023 courtesy of late-race contact, the fans rejected him, making Butcher the closest thing to a villain the race has had in years.

Even with his 2018 win, Pollard has never seemed to fit that outsider role. Perhaps the Maine fans see in him the same blue-collar work ethic they see in their own heroes, racers who hoped the Oxford 250 would get in Sunday night because they had to be at work on Monday.

But even with the help from Maine to get Pollard all the way there, he had to credit his people back in the Peach State. “We got some good people back at home that support me and allow me to race their stuff,” Pollard said.

“And I can’t thank them enough.”

If you like what you read here, become a Short Track Scene Patreon and support short track journalism!

Read more Short Track Scene:

• NorthEast Motorsports Expo provides respite from long, cold New England offseason
• Kate Re earns 2024 GNG’s Gift sponsorship
• Ken Squier’s legacy reaches far beyond his broadcast career