Garrett Hall celebrates after winning the PASS 150 on Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway. Staff photo by Travis Barrett

OXFORD — Garrett Hall still isn’t sure about Oxford Plains Speedway, but he is sure about one thing after his second consecutive Pro All Stars Series win at the track Sunday.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Hall, who took the lead with 18 laps remaining to win the Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150. “But I don’t want to be the favorite come (Oxford) 250 time.”

The Scarborough driver used a restart on lap 114 to get much-needed track position and close on early frontrunners Ray Christian III and Nick Sweet. When Christian, the Uncasville, Connecticut driver who led a race-high 85 laps, and Sweet went high to avoid the lapped machine of Michael Scorzelli off of turn two, Hall darted to the inside and drove through the middle of them all to go from third to first on lap 132.

That move allowed Hall to collect his second win in as many PASS races at Oxford this season, his fifth career series victory. Sweet, of Barre, Vermont, finished second with Christian holding on for third. Seven-time track champion Mike Rowe of Turner and Manchester’s Reid Lanpher completed the top-five.

“There was nobody behind me, and they went up to the top side,” Hall said. “I rolled down to the bottom and it worked out. Luckily, I was able to weasel my way in there and get by (Christian) and hold off (Sweet). He was really good.”

Sweet knew Hall was lurking, and he knew that racing with the lapped machine of Scorzelli had opened the door for the 24-year-old Scarborough driver.

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“I didn’t maneuver in traffic as well as I needed to,” Sweet said. “I tried to get (Christian) in a pick, but I just didn’t have enough car to keep him down on (Scorzelli). I gave Garrett the open road there.”

“I made a mistake getting around (Scorzelli) and let (Hall) get under me there,” Christian said. “I tried to pinch right down, but when I got to his right rear quarter, he jumped way down to the bottom and pretty much opened the hole up. Garrett just had an awesome run and filled the hole before I could realize what happened. It just is what it is, and you can’t blame anybody for that.”

Garrett Hall drives under the flagstand while leading the PASS 150 on Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway. Staff photo by Travis Barrett

Defending track champion Gabe Brown, Curtis Gerry, Edde MacDonald, Evan Hallstrom and Bobby Therrien finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Not everybody had the day that Hall — or any of the frontrunners — enjoyed. Some notable Oxford competitors struggled from the outset in the 30-car field, including current point leader D.J. Shaw (30th), six-time PASS champion Johnny Clark (18th), four-time track champion Tim Brackett (27th) and two-time Oxford 250 winner Travis Benjamin (23rd). All three of them finished among the 16 cars running a lap or more down at the end of the race.

Hall said he’s never really sure until the end if he’s got a car capable of contending at Oxford.

“It’s hard here. It’s a fun race when it’s going good, but when it’s not it’s a struggle,” Hall said. “It’s really just if cars start backing up to you that you know (the car is competitive). I didn’t think I had anything for (the leaders). I was thinking, ‘Well, I’ll be happy with a top three.’ As the race went on, they kind of started slowing up and slowing up. I just consisted with the same speed the whole time. The car was pretty stable the whole race.”

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In a sense, that’s exactly how Hall’s win in April went. He was as surprised as anybody to be in victory lane that afternoon.

Ben Rowe and Lanpher swapped the early lead a few times in the opening third of the race before Christian took over on lap 47. Christian — who had never finished better than 13th in three career starts at Oxford and failed to qualify for the 2017 Oxford 250 — pulled out to a sizable lead after the final restart on lap 114, but it took fewer than 10 laps for Sweet and Hall to reel him in.

“The long green run, I was pretty comfortable with where we were at,” Christian said. “I didn’t want to see the caution, but that’s how racing goes. We got too snug after about lap 100 and started losing the drive (off the corners).”

Slowed by only two caution periods for minor incidents, the race took less than 49 minutes to complete.

• • •

In other racing Sunday afternoon at Oxford, Spencer Morse of Waterford won the 50-lap PASS Modified feature. … Curtis Gerry became the first repeat winner of the season at Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday night, winning a caution-free 50-lap Super Late Model event to top the track’s weekly program. … Kevin Douglass of Sidney won the 50-lap Pro Stock feature at Wiscasset Speedway for his first career win after two-time feature winner Jeremie Whorff failed post-race technical inspection. Reigning track champion Nick Hinkley was credited with second. Skowhegan’s Zach Audet won his second Thunder 4 Mini feature of the season. … Bill Rodgers of Old Orchard Beach became the first two-time winner of the young season at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, nipping Trevor Sanborn of East Parsonsfield for the 40-lap Pro Series win.


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