Shaw scores first career NHMS win in PASS Northeast Classic

D.J. Shaw showed up for Saturday’s Northeast Classic with plans to focus solely on the afternoon’s Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model main event.

It was a plan that ultimately paid off.

The reigning and seven-time PASS North champion inherited the lead from protégé Gabe Brown with two laps remaining, then held off Eddie MacDonald to bookend his offseason with a cherished victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It’s a win that represents a career milestone for the Center Conway, N.H. veteran.

“It’s just so hard to pass here,” Shaw said in victory lane. “I think we were pretty damn equal. Dale Shaw Race Cars running 1-2 like that for so long is pretty impressive, putting on a good show for the fans that came out and are watching.

“I hate it that we didn’t get to have it go to the finish like that.”

Saturday’s 50-lap shootout at the “Magic Mile” kicked off the season for PASS’ flagship touring division after a soft launch to the year at Hickory Motor Speedway in March. Shaw gridded third for the start behind heat winner Brown and Mike Hopkins, with first-heat winner Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. handicapped for the start courtesy of his Hickory victory.

Hopkins jumped out to the early lead, but Brown kept the pressure on the Mainer in the early laps. The two swapped the top spot before Brown settled in at the point with 15 laps on the board. Shaw shadowed the two leaders in third, with MacDonald keeping pace in the top five and Derek Griffith charging forward from deep in the field.

But Shaw caught Hopkins shortly before the midrace pit break, taking second place before the scheduled lap-30 yellow flag. After a brief intermission, Brown and Shaw led the field back to green. Alexendre Tardif had powered to fourth before the break, but the Canadian bobbled on his first lap under green, stacking up the top five in Shaw’s mirror.

The field settled into a rhythm with Brown at the point, Shaw second, and MacDonald a distant third.

Brown was in command with two laps remaining when his Bobby Webber Racing-owned machine gave up the ghost, a failed alternator ending the afternoon just a minute too early. Shaw assumed the lead as Brown coasted to a stop, bringing out the caution flag.

While Brown’s mechanical failure looked to set up a single-lap shootout, scoring reverted to the last completed lap, making it a green-white-checkered finish with Shaw lined up alongside MacDonald, a multi-time NHMS winner across multiple divisions.

“There’s nobody that I would want less than Eddie MacDonald beside me on a green-white-checkered at Loudon,” Shaw confessed. “That guy just owns this place.”

But with victory in grasp, Shaw would not be denied.

In a two-lap shootout, Shaw outgunned “The Outlaw” to claim his first-ever win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

MacDonald followed Shaw across the line in second. Behind him, “Fireball” Tardif edged out Ryan Kuhn for third, capping off a day in which he borrowed a transmission from Shaw just to make the starting grid.

Former PASS champ Kuhn settled for fourth, with early leader Hopkins fifth.

Reigning Granite State Pro Stock Series champion Cole Robie was sixth at the stripe, with Griffith, heat winner Renfrew, Brandon Barker and Trevor Sanborn rounding out the top ten.

Brown was ranked 18th in the 21-car field after his dominant performance.

The race-long battle between Shaw and Brown reflected a new dynamic between the two friends, the mentor and protégé, the employer and employee. Brown’s career developed under the wings of both Shaw and his father Dale. Since his teen years, Brown worked as a full-time fabricator for Dale Shaw Race Cars while fielding his own team and maintaining his own cars.

But Brown struck out on his own in the offseason, launching his own chassis setup business. Brown remains a Shaw chassis customer, both through his own team and his new Bobby Webber Racing deal, but Shaw lost a critical cog in the DSRC operation.

Shaw had taken on a greater role in his career in 2025, launching an in-house ACT program after years of driving for car owner Arnie Hill. With the loss of Brown, and plenty of customer cars to tend to, Shaw opened the season focusing on his PASS program, finishing fifth at Hickory and winning at NHMS.

The 1.058-mile oval has long been a source of promise and frustration for Shaw, whose first experience at NHMS came in a brief NASCAR East Series stint in the late 2000s. In five starts, Shaw finished 13th twice, leading 19 laps in a race ultimately won by Ryan Truex. In Super Late Model competition, Shaw has two runner-up finishes. He crossed the line first in an American-Canadian Tour race in 2021, but a carburetor infraction negated the victory.

Shaw now joins his father Dale as an NHMS winner. The elder Shaw earned a trio of NHMS wins with the NASCAR Busch North Series in 1996, 1997, and 1998, each bearing the No. 60 that his 36-year-old son races today.

Today’s Super Late Model is a far cry from the NASCAR-compliant chassis Shaw and his father raced twenty and thirty years ago, but the achievement carries the same weight.

“This Bar Harbor Bank & Trust machine was hooked up today,” he said. “Can’t thank them enough, these guys that work on this thing, Dale Shaw Race Cars, everybody that pitched in and helped. My wife, kids, they’re here. I got ‘em a trophy this time.”

The big track is an outlier in the big championship picture, but some key absences at NHMS have already shaped the title battle. Seven-time champ and 2025 runner-up Johnny Clark was a notable absence, as was reigning PASS National Champion Brandon Varney. Vermont veteran Bobby Therrien, fourth in the standings last year, was also not in attendance. With Brown and likely Kuhn stepping up to full-time campaigns, Shaw will not be without quality competition.

But he’s certainly starting out with the momentum.

Unofficial Results
PASS North | Northeast Classic 50
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.
1. (60) D.J. Shaw
2. (17MA) Eddie MacDonald
3. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
4. (72) Ryan Kuhn
5. (15) Mike Hopkins
6. (29) Cole Robie
7. (12G) Derek Griffith
8. (00NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
9. (88) Brandon Barker
10. (44) Trevor Sanborn
11. (45) Derek Ming
12. (18) Michael Scorzelli
13. (5C) Dominic Curit
14. (5R) Max Rowe
15. (38) Garrett Lamb
16. (73D) Joey Doiron
17. (5VT) Pat Corbett
18. (47) Gabe Brown
19. (24J) J.P. Josiasse
20. (94) Garrett Hall
21. (10) Kate Re

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