OXFORD – The anxiety and anticipation along pit road was almost enough to drown out the noise of 70-plus cars lining up, or preparing to line up, for Sunday’s early afternoon qualifying heats at the TD Banknorth 250.
There were pockets of laughter and relaxation, but the tension had clearly taken hold as the nation’s biggest short-track race drew closer.
Spencer Robbins, brother and crew chief to Dixfield’s Scott Robbins, took a break in a deck chair at the back of his team’s trailer in the waning moments before afternoon qualifying kicked off.
Earlier in the afternoon, Scott Robbins had drawn the outside pole in Heat No. 4, not the preferred spot for the 2002 champion and his crew, but not a bad start to a long day of racing, either.
“We’ve got to either get out front or try to get in line on the inside somewhere,” Spencer said. “I’d rather draw the outside pole rather than 10th or 12th. It’s a pretty good draw.”
Scott King would have gladly traded places with Robbins. The Livermore Falls resident drew the 10th slot in the same heat.
“I’m a little nervous. I didn’t get a very good draw,” said King, who was racing in his fifth 250. “We’re going to do the best we can do. That’s it. We’ve got a real good car. I just got some cars from North Carolina, so we should be able to turn some heads if we can get a break and get in there.”
King repeated three words to himself, “aggressive but patient,” as a member of his crew fitted his safety harness over his suit.
It was one of the few points of strategy still standing on the third day of racing at the oval. Other than putting a good set of tires on their No. 72 Ford, the Robbins team wasn’t making many changes in preparation for their first green flag. In fact, their planning and strategy had already come full circle during the weekend.
“We have made a lot of adjustments, but we’ve gone right back to where we were at,” Robbins said. “During practice (Saturday), we changed every spring three or four times, the sway bar, quite a few things, but each one didn’t make it any better, so we went right back to how we started Friday afternoon.”
The Robbins might have tweaked things a little if they had gotten a report from Kirk Thibeau after the third heat race.
“The track’s really changed since (morning) practice. My car tightened up, but we brought it home. We’re in the field (21st).” said Thibeau of Fort Fairfield. “The track actually tightened up. The sun came out and was beating down on it, and it was pretty hot. The nose won’t turn, but you’ve just got to drive it for what it’s worth. It’s the 250.”
It appeared the Robbins brothers were on the verge of having to go back to the drawing board again through the first 4/5ths of their qualifier.
Robbins was stranded on the outside and out of the top four qualifying spots until all four tires on Kevin Kimball’s Chevy briefly went airborne in Turn 1 of lap 16 and brought out the yellow flag. It was the break Robbins needed.
“You’ve got to be able to hang on on the outside until you can go down, and I just drove my heart out trying to stay out there,” Scott Robbins said. “Something happened, and I was there to capitalize on it.”
King wasn’t able to capitalize because he fell out of the running when he hit the outside retaining wall in Turn 1 a few laps earlier. Back in the pits, Robbins’ brother and the rest of the crew looked relieved and greeted Scott with high fives and back slaps.
“It’s nice just getting in the race and qualifying in the heat race and not having to go through all of the consolation stuff,” Scott Robbins said.
“Now we’re all going to relax and I can change back into my shorts and be comfortable for awhile.”
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