Dave Farrington Jr. of Jay celebrates in Victory Lane after winning Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway. Travis Barrett/Kennebec Journal

OXFORD — Dave Farrington Jr. says he’s taking next weekend off. After four straight wins at Oxford Plains Speedway, he’s earned the break.

Farrington held off all comers Sunday afternoon, emerging from several late-race restarts to win the Pro All Stars Series Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150. The victory, the first career PASS win for the 27-year-old driver, came following feature wins in weekly Super Late Model competition at the track on Aug. 1, Aug. 8 and Aug. 15.

Farrington said he won’t race next weekend in a 100-lap event, instead opting to wait for the 47th annual Oxford 250 on Aug. 30.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better. Well, I could ask for one better – and that’s in two weeks,” Farrington said. “That fifth win would be the 250. Man, that’s what we’re all gunning for, and I think a lot of people are gunning for this orange car now, unfortunately. We can’t come in as the underdog anymore.”

Six-time PASS champion Johnny Clark finished more than two seconds behind Farrington, while Hudson, New Hampshire’s Derek Griffith was third. Austin Teras of Gray and Berwick’s Joey Doiron completed the top five in the 34-car field.

Dave Farrington Jr. leads Derek Griffith (12) and Johnny Clark (54) in the late stages of Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series race at Oxford Plains Speedway. Travis Barrett/Kennebec Journal

The lead changed hands several times in the first half of the event, most notably when Doiron and pole-sitter Scott Robbins swapped the top spot no fewer than five times through the first 60 laps. Three-time Oxford 250 winner Travis Benjamin of Morrill made a charge to the lead on Lap 62, but his brief stint ended two laps later when Griffith took a turn at the point.

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All of that set the stage for Farrington, who motored past Griffith on Lap 83 and enjoyed command of the event through the finish.

For a driver with a history of fast cars early before fading late, it was a nice change of pace.

“We’ve obviously found something,” Farrington said. “We knew we were good for 50 laps. Today was going to be the real test with 150. We knew we’d been falling off a little bit in previous 150s this year. Man, it’s right there.”

All of the hard racing early took its toll, according to Clark. Though there were only five cautions and not a lot of contact between cars, the pace was certainly pushed early – particularly among cars in the top 15 spots.

“It was such an aggressive race,” Clark said. “We were way too hard on Lap 1. I knew it. … I just rode and rode and rode. But it was fun. It was a fun race, especially going into the 250.”

Griffith didn’t think he used up his car too soon. He just couldn’t match Farrington.

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“We were pretty good, but on our long run stuff we freed up. It’s just the nature of these cars,” said Griffith, who started 11th. “Track position is so important here. … I kind of got where I had to be and everything fell in place for me to wiggle my way to the front. We maintained up there, but Dave was the class of the field today. He had us all covered, for sure.”

Though Farrington had his hands full with both Griffith and Clark on a pair of restarts with less than 50 laps to go, his familiar orange No. 23 sprang back to life each time after a few nervy laps.

He lost the lead to Griffith on Lap 106 but had it back three laps later, this time for good.

“My father is my spotter and he said … ‘Just dig hard on restarts, let four or five laps click off and you’re going to pull away from them,’ and that’s exactly what we had to do,” Farrington said. “Never want to see the restarts, but I guess it makes it more exciting for the fans and draws more interest to it.”

PASS points leader Nick Sweet, winner of four of the first seven races this season, faded to 11th after running inside the top 10 most of the day. Reigning track champion Curtis Gerry of Waterboro pitted three times for handling adjustments and finished 16th. Former Oxford 250 champions Benjamin Rowe (10th), Ben Rowe (12th), Robbins (23rd), Eddie MacDonald (24th) and Mike Rowe (33rd) all ended up with disappointing finishes.

In other feature racing, Spencer Morse of Waterford won the 50-lap PASS Modified event for his second win of the season, and Matt Dufault of Naples won the 40-lap Street Stock race.


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