OXFORD – Before last Friday morning, Kevin Harvick had never seen Oxford Plains Speedway.

With just a brief practice session that morning, followed by an abbreviated session on Saturday and the qualifying races, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series star had the place pretty well figured out.

Harvick took the lead from Eddie MacDonald on lap 133 and drove off to victory in the 35th annual TD Banknorth 250 Monday evening.

“It’s been quite a weekend,” Harvick said. “I can’t believe how the fans have hung in there through all the rain. Luckily, it worked out for us in the end, and we won the thing.”

Harvick is the first driver to win the race as a current Sprint Cup driver.

When he first announced his intentions to compete in the 250 several months ago, Harvick said he intended to come to Maine and win the race. With a fast car, which was built at his shop in North Carolina, and the right breaks, he did exactly that.

“I have to thank Shane Wilson and this whole Quirk Chevrolet crew,” Harvick said. “They put a strong car under me, and I could put it anywhere I needed to go. This caps a pretty awesome off-weekend for me away from NASCAR. I want to thank all the competitors here at Oxford, everybody has been so nice and made this trip enjoyable for us. It’s been a real blast.

Local favorite and Oxford veteran Glen Luce made a terrific late-race charge but settled for second. Teenage sensation Joey Polewarczyk ran among the leaders all night and claimed third at the finish, while Turner’s Shawn Martin was fourth and Ben Rowe fifth.

“I saw Glen coming there at the end and had to pick it up a notch,” Harvick said. “I knew he’d be right there on a restart, but we were able to hold him off.”

Luce was thrilled with his performance despite falling short of the big prize.

“I feel like we just won this thing,” said an elated Luce. “To finish second to a driver of Kevin’s caliber is awesome. The car tightened up a little at the end, but we gave it our best. To come from 38th in the field all the way to second is great.

“We had quite a fight to get up here, but the car really came alive in the late stages. My crew worked there butts off to make this happen.”

Twelve cautions slowed the pace, while Harvick’s margin of victory was roughly three-car lengths.

“Those cautions actually helped us because my right rear tire was burning up, and that gave it a chance to cool off,” Harvick said.

After lots of waiting, hoping and maybe even a little prayer, thousands of race fans finally got to witness a great race.

Oxford regular Tommy Ricker led the first two laps before former 250 winner Scott Robbins took command at lap three.

The Dixfield native’s time up front was short-lived as MacDonald roared past on the outside at lap seven. The first 50 laps were caution-plagued, as starter Kenny Tripp waved the yellow on five occasions.

Things settled down shortly after, as the field clicked off 15 laps of green-flag racing. Polewarczyk made his intentions known at lap 53 when he wheeled past MacDonald to steal the lead. The youngster from Hudson, N.H., drove like a seasoned pro, but MacDonald roared back by to retake the point on the 55th circuit. The sixth caution came out at lap 65 when Robbins spun into the infield.

Three more cautions waved before the field reached halfway, then officials brought out a competition yellow just one lap later to give teams a chance to pit in safe conditions.

When racing resumed, action heated up. MacDonald led lap 127 but Harvick wheeled his No. 29 machine past the very next lap. The two drivers exchanged the lead again before Harvick snookered MacDonald with a slick move on lap 133 to retake command. Just as he has done at the Sprint Cup series level on so many occasions, the California native drove away from the pack once he got ahead of the mayhem.

After the event’s 11th caution came out at laps 169 (for a spinning Jeff White), things settled down again for a decent green-flag run. By lap 200, it became clear Harvick had the dominant car, while two-time winner Ben Rowe was hanging out comfortably in the fourth position.

MacDonald slid back for bit during the mid stages, but started his march back to the front with 50 laps to go.

The biggest surprise at this juncture came from ACT rookie Nick Sweet, who was racing Tiger Sportman cars at Vermont’s Thunder Road in 2007. On this night, he was battling with the top dogs for northeastern short-track racing’s biggest payday.

The other big surprise as laps began to wind down was the strong performance of Luce. The driver from Strong raced his way into the 250 by winning a last-chance race, then drove the race of his life after sunset. Luce drove underneath Polewarczyk to take second on lap 223, drawing a roar from the fans as the local driver surged forward.