52nd Oxford 250 Weekend is Here, Stories to Watch this Weekend

Column By: Stephen Durham / RPW – OXFORD, M.E. – It is Oxford 250 Week, one of the biggest races of the year for short-track racing in New England, and one of the most prestigious races in the country. 2025 will be the 52nd running of the Oxford 250. Legendary names of the past have won it, with the likes of Geoff Bodine(2x), Mike Rowe(3x), and Dave Dion(3x). Current and former NASCAR drivers, Kyle Busch, Ricky Craven and Kevin Harvick have won it. Or fan favorites, like a year ago, Jeff Taylor, finally doing it, winning the freaking Oxford 250. 

This year is no different, over 40 drivers will head to Oxford Plains Speedway, located in Oxford, Maine, in hopes of winning one of the biggest super late model races in the country. Drivers coming from other states, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, or from our neighbor to the north, Canada. Here are a few stories to follow heading into Oxford 250 Weekend for the American-Canadian Tour and Pro All-Star Series(PASS).

American-Canadian Tour: 

• Raphael Lessard:  He comes off of winning the Milton CAT Mid-Summer Classic 250 at White Mountain Motorsports Park earlier this month, his 2nd win at White Mountain in 2025. Lessard carries a 55 point championship lead into a double-header weekend at Oxford Plains Speedway over DJ Shaw. 

• Derek Gluchacki: Gluchacki is the defending winner of the Oxford 125 from 2024, a now 2 time winner of the race, winning it in 2022 as well. He is coming off a strong run at White Mountain Motorsports Park where he finished 3rd behind DJ Shaw and Lessard. Can he continue to gain momentum in the 2nd half of the ACT tour season?

• DJ Shaw: Shaw has been on a roll as of lately in his super late model, but what will he bring to the table at Oxford next weekend? Shaw currently sits 2nd in the American-Canadian Tour championship standings, trailing by 55 points. 

• Gabe Brown: He has had a quiet season on the ACT Tour since winning at the Northeast Classic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2024 ACT Tour champion has won at Oxford before on Oxford 250 weekend, winning the Oxford 125 back in 2023.

• The “young-guns” of the ACT Tour, such as Kaiden Fisher and Alexendre Tardif will be two names to keep an eye on. Fisher won earlier this year at Thunder Road and sits 5th in the championship standings. Tardif finished runner-up to Gluchacki in 2022 in his first full-season and as a rookie with the ACT Tour. Tardif currently sits 8th in the championship standings, winning earlier this summer at Autodrome Chaudiere in the Claude Leclerc 150. 

Pro All-Star Series:

• DJ Shaw: Shaw has been on a tear as of late at Oxford Speedway, sweeping the weekend at Oxford Plains Speedway in super late model action earlier in August. Winning the weekly Saturday Night race, where it was a 100 lapper, Shaw earned a provisional for Oxford 250 Weekend. Shaw followed it up by winning the next day with the PASS tour, widening his championship lead. Shaw has yet to win the Oxford 250, but has finished 3rd the last two years, and has finished 3rd, three times since 2019. 

• Bubba Pollard: Making the trip north again, after finishing runner-up to Jeff Taylor a year ago, the 2018 Oxford 250 champion will look to get his 2nd. Pollard a year ago was negotiated into coming to Oxford, thanks to fundraising and promotion by Black Flagged Podcast. Expect the Georgia native to put on a show this weekend.

• Johnny Clark: Clark, the 2020 Oxford 250 champion, and multi-PASS champion will look to close the gap behind DJ Shaw in the championship standings, and get another Oxford 250 win. A year ago, it was an early ending to the night for Clark, but back-to-back years in 2022 and 2023, Clark scored top 5’s. Clark trails Shaw by 22 points heading into Oxford 250 weekend.

• Derek Griffith: A multi-PASS National champion, coming into the Oxford 250 weekend with a brand new FURY chassis, will look to grab the prestigious Oxford 250 win. Griffith showed impressive speed his first time out in the new car, coming from 23rd to 11th, in a race that went green from lap 8 to checkered at lap 100. Griffith was ever so close in 2019, coming home 2nd, and hasn’t finished in the top 5 since 2021, where he finished 3rd.

• Garrett Hall: Hall has gotten it done once at Oxford once in 2025 already, winning back in July, and won the Celebration of America 300, going last to first to score the victory. Hall also has another PASS win on the season, back in June at Star Speedway. In recent years, Hall hasn’t had the finishes he’d hope for, his last top 5 coming in 2018. 

• Have to keep on the younger drivers of the PASS tour, whether it be Gabe Brown, had a top 5 back in 2023, a 3rd place finish in 2022. Sylas Ripley, one of the youngest on the PASS Tour had a top 5 just a year ago. A driver, who’s not full time on the PASS tour, but had solid run his first time at Oxford a couple of weeks ago, Carson Brown, who sits 2nd in the ASA National standings behind 2x Oxford 250 champion, Cole Butcher.

Three nights of racing is on tap this weekend, with racing getting under way Friday night at 5PM, with the ACT and PASS tour in action, along with limiteds, rebels, mad bombers, thunder stocks, and street stocks. The ACT tour will be making up Yvon Bedard 109 Friday night, then the PASS series will be running their PASS Sunoco 150. Saturday, racing gets underway for the ACT portion of the weekend at 4PM, as the ACT tour will go 125 laps for their main event Saturday evening. Then Sunday, the main event of the weekend. Racing gets underway with heat race action, divisions in attendance with the super late models will be the street stocks, limiteds, the New England Supermodified Series, and the PASS mods. Watch it live on RacingAmerica if you can’t be there.