PORTLAND – A small bead of sweat formed at the base of Dale Verrill’s graying sideburns as he stood, arms folded across his chest, outside of the Holiday Inn.

It wasn’t nearly as hot there, though, as it was last year on the track at Oxford Plains Speedway. And on that day, the heat had nothing to do with the temperature.

Verrill, 60, came within what he called “a whisker” of becoming the second-oldest champion of New England’s most storied short-track auto race, the TD Banknorth 250. He placed second, as Roger Brown held Verrill off to win by less than a car length.

“Our car was better on longer runs,” Verrill said. “The caution with 10 laps left really hurt us. We caught him, but we didn’t really have enough time. If the race was 252 laps, we would have had him.”

Brown spins a different tale, however he also admits it’s a slightly jaded version, given the fact that he did win the race.

“I want to believe I could have held him off,” Brown said with a laugh. “That’s how I want to believe it. It would have been interesting had he been there sooner. I basically got really nervous, and everything going through my mind was, ‘How am I going to lose this race?'”

After the pair crossed the finish line, with Verrill on the outside part of the track, Brown nudged the veteran racer, drawing some boos from the local crowd.

“He’s a great guy, a great racer,” Brown said. “At the end of the race last year, I ran into him. I never looked in my mirror and didn’t know where he was. I got so excited going into Turn 1 after the race I forgot to turn and went right into him. I got booed for it, which was fun, but between us, it’s all good.”

Brown’s respect for Verrill isn’t unique. The Paris driver has been around racing at OPS for a long time, though he took a long break between sessions at the track. Verrill was a mainstay in the 1980s before leaving the sport, while his children went to school, and while the economy recovered from a swoon in the latter part of the decade.

“I raced back in the 80s, and then my girls went to college and for 12, 13 years I quit,” Verrill said. “We took a break, and when we had a chance to get back into it, we did. I don’t regret it, either. I like racing them young guys.”

Some things haven’t changed, either.

Like qualifying at the 250.

Verrill finished second in the fourth qualifying heat last year to earn the No. 12 spot on the starting grid. He also avoided racing two more times to get in, which helped save his tires and fuel consumption.

“It’s frame of mind, mostly,” Verrill said. “It’s hard to block everything else out, especially for me. But that’s the key, focusing on the race and on qualifying. That’s a hard road in itself, and my name ain’t Kevin Harvick, and I’m not the points leader. There are going to be a lot of cars – a lot of good cars – that don’t get in.”

Verrill has spent the last three weeks working on a setup for the big race.

“The last couple of races we ran at Oxford, we ran thinking we were getting ready for the 250,” Verrill said. “Weight-wise, gas-wise, we were setting it up. Hopefully it helped us.”

Verrill said his current standing in the OPS Late Model points isn’t an indicator of how well his car really is this year.

“We’ve had a good car this year,” Verrill said. “Points-wise, we don’t necessarily look like we had a good car, but we’ve had a good car. It’s a matter of qualifying, using your head and taking it easy until the last 50 to 75 laps.”

If he can make it through qualifying again, and get himself into the show, Verrill is hoping to do one of the tougher things you can ask of any driver: Break through and turn a No. 2 finish into a No. 1.

“It was a good year, we really ran well last year, and we missed it by a whisker,” Verrill said. “This year, we’re hoping to be just a little bit better.”