Talent isn’t everything in 250-lap race
By Kalle Oakes
Sports Editor

OXFORD – Scott Robbins won last year’s True Value 250 on the strength of battle-tested talent, a fast Ford and a stellar pit crew.

Oh, and he got lucky.

“Don’t get me wrong. My car was great last year,” said Robbins, “but I’m lucky that the caution didn’t come out with 10 laps to go, or Mike Rowe would be a three-time champion.”

Robbins took the lead shortly after the halfway point last July and expanded it to approximately six seconds on the 3/8-mile oval.

By the time there were five laps to go, without the benefit of a caution period to bunch the field, Rowe had whittled that margin to six car lengths. It was down to four lengths when the white flag appeared, or close enough for Rowe to replicate Dave Dion’s dramatic last-lap pass of Joey Kourafas in 1985 if slower traffic caused Robbins to let off the accelerator long enough to blink.

Robbins, a four-time True Value qualifier from Dixfield who has walked away from the race with more than $56,000 in his career, expects his right foot and the transmission in his Taurus to get more of a workout if he’s the leader late in Sunday night’s 30th annual race.

“Even in a clean race, you’re going to have four or five cautions, and they can totally change the complexion of the race,” said Robbins. “Last year, I led the final 83 laps with this red thing (Rowe’s car) in my rear-view mirror. I doubt that could happen again. I was shocked that it did last year.”

Actually, it was the second straight year for such a clean-and-green scenario. The previous summer, one driver’s rotten luck and another competitor’s ensuing marvelous luck likely cost Ralph Nason an unthinkable fourth straight True Value 250 championship.

Nason enjoyed a comfortable lead with about 100 laps to go when he made contact with the slower car of Paul Bosse and spun into the infield along the front stretch.

Because Nason was out of immediate danger in that spot, race director Mike Ryan didn’t ask flagman Kenny Tripp to wave the yellow flag. Nason took about a dozen precious seconds to restart his disabled Ford. That allowed Drew to snag the lead and put Nason almost a full lap down before the crafty veteran pulled onto the track just in front of him.

During the lengthy, caution-free exchange that followed, Nason regained nearly eight seconds worth of real estate, advancing all the way back to third place behind Drew and Robbins. By the time the final yellow flag gave Nason an opportunity to eliminate the remainder of the margin, however, there were less than 20 laps to go and a gaggle of lapped cars between him and the leader in the restart alignment.

Robbins knows that the roles could be reversed more quickly than you can say “debris in turn three.”

“A guy could have a half-lap lead and a caution could wipe it out,” Robbins said.

Heartbreak kid

Nason has spent quality time on both sides of the fence in the True Value 250: destiny’s darling and poster child for misfortune.

His second conquest in 1999 was easily the most authoritative. Nason essentially won that one race three times after he spun twice while leading. He suggested then that both incidents were intentional.

“It made me mad and it hurt my damn feelings,” Nason said at the time.

On that night, at least, Nason was able to drown his sorrows with the assistance of a $42,700 winner’s check.

Nason, who conceivably could be a six-time 250 champion, is no stranger to hurt feelings at the short track showcase.

Consider 1994, when a mechanical malady set in after lap 200 and sent his previously dominant Dodge behind the pit wall. Derek Lynch, one of Nason’s young challengers on the American-Canadian Tour, wound up wearing the wreath in the winner’s circle.

Three years later, Nason and Jeff Taylor flaunted the two fastest cars in the field, but they collided while trying to avoid another accident and were not a factor in the finish.

That was one of several early exchanges that prevented Mike Rowe from going a lap down. Rowe rallied for his second True Value 250 victory after a 13-year drought.

“We had a flat tire, and if we had to stop to change it under green, our race was over,” Rowe said. “After that, I just kind of looked up and said, ‘Thanks.’ “

Nason’s biggest dose of heartbreak came during his younger years in the 250’s third season. Leading the bicentennial race of 1976 by a bundle, or so he thought, Nason backed off and allowed Butch Lindley to pass.

While the Maine hopeful thought he merely was allowing the national champion to get back on the tail end of the lead lap, NASCAR confirmed that Lindley’s pass was for the lead and later declared him the winner.

To this day, Nason believes he won the 1976 race. It would be 17 years before he would enjoy another finish higher than 27th in the True Value 250.

At your service

Pit strategy is indelibly linked with luck.

Timing and technique are equally crucial. While the NASCAR Winston Cup professionals have reduced a four-tire change and refueling to a 14-second science, most of the True Value 250 pit crews are volunteer mechanics who do a majority of their work on the car before and after weekly 35-lap encounters.

“We usually practice in (fellow driver) Darren Bernier’s yard,” said Alan Wilson of Hebron, “because he’s the only guy in town with a paved driveway.”

Due to the length of the race and uncertain tire wear, every driver in the field will need to pit at least once this evening. That means making all the right adjustments in harmony, with an audience of more than 10,000 spectators, on a cramped infield pit road under the invisible but ever-present clock.

The last two winners, Gary Drew and Robbins, timed their stops under caution almost precisely at the halfway point. Much later than that and a driver can’t guarantee that he will have enough time to reclaim lost track position.

New pavement and the possibility of premature tire abrasion add a wrinkle to this year’s strategy.

“Whatever it takes,” said Dale Shaw. “We’ll stop early and change tires twice if we have to.”

Rambling, gambling men

The addition of lap-leader bonus money in the early 1980s offered a lucrative temptation to any early leader of the 250. At $100 per lap, staying out front a mite too long and paying off many of the summer’s racing expenses can appear as attractive as the thought of winning the race.

Ed Howe and Dick McCabe were among the luminaries burned by the bonus bucks in the early years. More recently, Larry Gelinas dominated the 2000 event but eschewed several opportunities to stop near halfway. A flurry of late pit road appearances weren’t enough to shuffle Gelinas back to the front.

Like Nason, Gelinas has been on both ends of the equation. He was the beneficiary in 1996 when Ben Rowe’s small fuel cell ran dry with two laps to go.

The late Lindley experienced a moment of comeuppance in 1980, as well. Lindley and Geoff Bodine attempted to go the distance without a fuel stop, but Lindley’s car coughed, sputtered and coasted to a second-place finish on the final lap. Bodine’s car ran out of gas on the cooldown lap.

Drivers and veteran observers understand that the line between a heartwarming win and heartburn can be as thin as the width of a 50-cent wire.

“Expect the unexpected,” said OPS track announcer Bobby Walker, who has called 26 of the 29 previous True Value 250s. “Daytona never goes the way you expect it to go, and neither does Oxford.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link