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By Tim Packman- Racing America News
Photo Tom Morris Racing Photography
When the checkered flag finally waved over the 51st Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Oxford 250, it was nine-time Oxford Plains Speedway track champion Jeff Taylor standing tall next to his No. 88 in Victory Lane.
After battling 41 other competitors and enduring a three-hour rain delay, Taylor won the Oxford Plains Speedway’s prestigious race for the very first time in 28 attempts.
It was a reflective and slightly shocked driver talking about his win afterwards.
“I honestly don’t know how we won,” the Farmington, Maine native shared. “I can’t believe this, we don’t run full-time like a lot of these other drivers. I can tell you one thing, that rain delay really helped this car out a lot.
“There are so many people who helped us out. We just threw a team of volunteers together to beat these other teams. It’s unbelievable, it really is something.
In the closing laps, Taylor withstood a fierce challenge from 2018 Oxford 250 winner Bubba Pollard. Taylor successfully defended the bottom lane to hold off Pollard for the win.
“We had the track position, and I’ve watched Bubba Pollard race enough to know I needed to just stay on the bottom. He had the outside to pass me if he wanted.”
Pollard came up one position short of repeating his 2018 Oxford 250 victory and appreciated how the race ended.
“It was good. I don’t like running second, but I’m okay with how it ended with Jeff winning.” Pollard said. “This is big for him, his family and team.
“This is what short track racing is all about. I love coming up here to Oxford. There were a lot of people who helped me get here this weekend, and I can’t thank them enough.”
The Oxford 250 starting line-up had 42 drivers taking the green flag, which guaranteed all kinds of action would take place around the 3/8-mile Oxford Plains Speedway. Adding in pit stops, tire strategy, race strategy and weather strategy made the event more interesting.
Leading the field to green was Ryan Kuhn and Joey Doiron in the front row. They took off and battled for the lead in the early going with Doiron taking the lead from Kuhn by lap six.
Negotiating lap traffic by lap 21 slowed Doiron and Kuhn down just enough to allow their competitors to close in. One driver taking advantage of it was Derek Griffith, running third at the time.
At the lap-50 mark, Griffith worked his way to second and began closing in on the leader of Doiron as they negotiated the slower cars. The first caution of the night took place on lap 52 to rerack the field.
Multiple teams hit pit road with some taking two and others four tires, while checking tire pressures to improve handling.
Doiron and Griffith led the way on the Lap 53 restart and quickly tried to separate themselves from the field. Kuhn was in third with a hard-charging Bubba Pollard working the high side.
After another restart on Lap 56, Pollard really let the leaders know he was there to race by taking over second place. After looking to the outside and inside of the leader Kuhn, Pollard powered his way past Kuhn with 181 laps to go.
From there, they raced side-by-side for multiple laps battling for the lead until a caution three laps later showing Doiron as the leader. With all eyes on the Senoia, Georgia native of Pollard to the outside of Berwick, Maine’s Doiron, the race resumed to see who would lead next.
With 34 cars still on the lead lap, Doiron continued to lead Pollard as Griffith now joined the top three. Pollard surrendered second to Griffith with 165 laps remaining, who then fell into the clutches of DJ Shaw who took over third place on lap 89.
Under two more cautions, Pollard and many other leaders hit pit road for tires, mostly two, and adjustments. The phrase “cautions breed cautions” was in full effect from laps 98 to 105.
On the ensuing restarts, Doiron worked the wheel holding off Griffith, Shaw and Sanborn. Behind them, their fellow competitors were racing two and three wide to gain positions.
After a long-green flag run, and just nine laps from the halfway point of the race, Mother Nature showed up as rain forced the field onto pit road.
After the three-hour rain delay, the 34 remaining cars tried to get a feel for the freshly washed surface. Doiron and Griffith set the pace from the front row when the green flag waved.
Behind them, a three-car pile-up happened on the frontstretch with them all coming to rest under the flag stand.
On Lap 122, a light rain started again bringing out the caution. This time, cars remained out to keep some heat in the track to continue racing sooner.
Once the Oxford 250 restarted, a 10-car wreck took place on Lap 124 in Turn 1 sending several cars pit side and done for the night. Until this point, the leader of Doiron had still not been to pit road.
Race strategy for his team was paramount as to when he would pit, and how many tires he’d take. Other teams were also paying attention, because the second-place car of Griffith had been passed and was back to fourth.
Garrett Hall and Mike Hopkins were now in second and third, respectively, and chasing down the leader of Doiron. With 113 laps remaining, the caution came out and this was when Doiron hit pit road taking four tires, fuel and adjustments.
Hall and Hopkins also came to the attention of their crew to take four tires. Griffith decided to remain out and take over the lead, Moltz would line up second for the restart.
Griffin would be passed for the lead by DJ Shaw with 95 laps remaining, who overtook him on the outside and quickly separated himself from the second to seventh positions.
On lap 175, Shaw had a 4.1-second lead over Griffith, Moltz and Pollard, who had returned to the top five running order after an earlier pit stop put him back to 28th place. Five laps later, Pollard had moved to second and was on the charge.
A caution 10 laps later allowed Griffith to finally pit for tires, but problems changing the left front cost him valuable track position. Also pitting was Pollard, giving up second place.
Shaw and Gabe Brown showed the way for the restart, which was followed by another caution. The pace of the race picked up with a long green flag run that included Pollard breaking back into the top five, Taylor taking over second, Brown to third and Pollard fourth.
With 43 to go, Pollard raced his way to third with the leader of Shaw working his way through lap traffic. Taylor started looking to the outside of Shaw with 35 laps remaining as Pollard closed in on them both.
The scoreboard showed 30 laps remaining when Shaw, Taylor and Pollard were running within .1 seconds of each other battling for position. Taylor took the lead five laps later, but now lap traffic was becoming a factor as Pollard leaped into second.
Pollard was filling the rearview mirror of Taylor as he chased him around the track. Looking to the inside and outside of the leader, Pollard was looking for a way to take the lead.
Taylor was looking for his first Oxford 250 victory, Pollard his second as he kept trying to the outside. That didn’t work, so Pollard backed off a bit to cool his tires.
Five laps remained when Taylor started to pull away from Pollard with a three-car length lead. When the checkered flag waved, Taylor took the win and his very first Oxford 250.
Pollard was second and Shaw third at the stripe.
