The thought didn’t occur to Scott Robbins until the first caution flag dropped roughly 50 laps into last year’s Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Needing a provisional to get into the race, Robbins had started in the back of the pack, but had already passed nearly half the field. It was all a blur. He suddenly realized that leading him through the maze of cars was Nextel Cup champion Matt Kenseth.
“Kurt (Busch), Matt and myself, for the first 50 laps we were nose-to-tail,” Robbins recalled Wednesday. “It was a neat feeling to be competitive with him.”
Maine’s top stock car drivers will once again measure themselves against the best racers in the world. Kenseth, the 2003 Nextel Cup champion, is returning to the Oxford track for the 32nd annual Banknorth 250.
The race is scheduled for Sunday, July 31.
Kenseth, who started in the back with Robbins, impressed the local drivers and fans with his innate ability to handle an unfamiliar track. He finished third.
“I had a great time at the Banknorth 250 last year,” Kenseth said in a statement released by the track. “Racing from the back of the pack to third was a thrill. I’m hoping now that I’ve become a little more familiar with the track that I can help Whorff Motorsports get to victory lane.”
“That’s awesome,” added Robbins. “It shows what the race meant to him.”
The Whorff team will provide Kenseth will a different car – the one driven last year by Jeremie Whorff.
“Matt was great,” said Bill Whorff Jr., Jeremie’s father. “He was a real professional. He basically told us what he was looking for. I had the car set up for me. He jumped in, and we did almost no adjustments.
“He was just like one of us.”
Joining Nextel Cup in 2000, Kenseth won rookie of the year honors. After winning more races than any other driver in 2002, he easily captured the 2003 Cup championship. He was one of 10 drivers to qualify for the chase last year, finishing eighth.
Kenseth, 33, has struggled in 2005. He is currently 21st with one top-10 finish in the first six races.
One of nine Nextel Cup champions to have competed in Maine’s premier stock car race, Kenseth got as high as second before finishing third behind two-time winner Ben Rowe and runner-up Ricky Rolfe.
Rolfe, who passed Kenseth with roughly 40 laps to go, estimates he finished 8-10 car-lengths ahead of him. Having one of the top Cup drives in his rear-view mirror got Rolfe’s attention.
“We were both around a bunch of lapped cars and they weren’t getting out of the way for us,” Rolfe said. “Whenever I passed one and put a lapped car between us, I was able to relax a little.”
Kenseth’s entry should help attract another large crowd to the 13,000-seat facility in Oxford. Last year’s race also featured eventual 2004 Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch, who finished 13th. No word yet on how many other NASCAR drivers will join Kenseth in Maine.
“Last year’s race was the highlight of my career,” Rolfe said. “The atmosphere, the noise was at the level you see at Loudon.”
“For most of us, this will be as big as we’ll ever get,” Robbins said. “To be able to challenge ourselves like this, it’s a great opportunity.
“It’s a win-win for everyone.”
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