Race crews push their cars through inspection Tuesday at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford. Drivers were at the track Tuesday for practice laps prior to the start of Wednesday’s Celebration of America 300. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

OXFORD — The Celebration of America 300 has received lots of attention this week, for multiple reasons.

The 300-lap Super Late Model race, run Wednesday night at Oxford Plains Speedway, features a $40,000 prize for the winner, the biggest payout in Maine this season and nearly twice the $25,000 prize for the track’s biggest race, the Oxford 250. It also includes NASCAR drivers, highlighted by 2015 and 2019 Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, the 2011 Oxford 250 champion, and Daniel Hemric.

But underneath the star power and prize money, the event is still an official Pro All Star Series (PASS) race, with season points on the line.

“There’s so many cars, and good cars (racing) that it’s hard to be consistently good here,” said driver DJ Shaw.

Shaw currently leads the PASS North overall standings with 1,326 points. The Conway, New Hampshire, driver has yet to win a race, but has had a Top 5 finish in every event he’s competed in. Shaw was the 2023 PASS North runner-up to Palmyra’s Max Cookson, who has also won the past two Oxford Plains Speedway Super Late Model championships.

“It’s good, it’s comfortable having a little bit of security (in the standings),” Shaw said. “Obviously, we’re looking for victory lane. This would be a good one to break through. … We haven’t been a threat to win (in previous races), but (we had) solid days. That’s what we really need here, especially a race like this, is to be in contention. You need to be there at the end to have a shot. You don’t need to to be the dominant car, sometimes you get lucky. We’re just looking to stay consistent and be in the front and hopefully can do that all again (this week).”

Johnny Clark spends time in the pits Tuesday at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford. Clark will compete during Wednesday’s Celebration of America 300. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Fellow Conway driver Gabe Brown is second (1,268 points) in the standings, while Farmingdale racer Johnny Clark (1,236) is third. Clark, the 2021 PASS North champion and 2020 Oxford 250 winner, finished fourth in the standings last year. Clark won the PASS SLM 150 at the White Mountain Motorsport Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.

“We’re good everywhere else but Oxford,” Clark laughed. “We’re trying, we’re changing a lot of things (with the car). Everything we do everywhere else just doesn’t seem to apply here. We probably haven’t been spending as much time testing here as we should have. It’s not so much the speed (of the car) we’re looking for (this week), it’s more comfort and drivability over (many laps).”

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With $40,000 on the line for Wednesday’s race, the competition level for drivers at OPS rises a bit more than the usual PASS race.

“It’s elbows out — you’d wreck your mother if you had to,” Clark said. “The good thing is, the group of guys here, everyone races each other pretty respectfully. We know what to expect out of people. When it’s your night, it’s your night, and if it’s someone else’s, it’s theirs. But if it comes down to a green-, white-checkered (finish), it’s elbows out. There’s a lot on the line, but hopefully it’s really nice.”

“Probably towards the end, if someone’s in second, there’s a little more incentive (to drive hard),” added driver Eddie MacDonald, who won the Oxford 250 in 2009 and 2010. “It should be a good race.”

Though drivers maintain that the Oxford 250 is still the premiere race of the season, there is hope that the Celebration of America 300 is a race that continues into the future.

“I’ll never complain about racing for money,” Shaw said. “If they all paid like this, it’d be a racer’s dream, we could all be Late Model guys racing full time. It’s just a great step for New England short track racing in general.”

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The PASS North series heads back to North Woodstock, New Hampshire, on July 14. On July 21, an Oxford 250 provisional race will take place at Spud Speedway in Caribou.

The 51st Oxford 250 is scheduled for Aug. 25 at OPS. Cole Butcher won last year’s race, becoming the sixth driver in the race’s history to win in back-to-back years. Joey Doiron finished second, while Shaw finished third.