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Joey Polewarczyk Jr. (Photo: American Canadian Tour)
Joey Polewarczyk Jr. won his fourth American-Canadian Tour event of the season in the Oxford Plains 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, Saturday night after a late incident while fighting with Brad Babb for the lead.
Polewarczyk, of Hudson, N.H., took the lead for the final time with four laps remaining after he and Babb made contact heading into Turn 1 following a restart. Babb slid up the track before gathering the car, but he subsequently lost control exiting turn two and spun to bring out the caution.
Following one last restart, Polewarczyk held off a final charge from Dillon Moltz to complete the season sweep at the .375-mile oval and unofficially regain the points lead. The 2014 ACT champion also won at Oxford in April.
“I was able to drive down and get a good run coming out of Turn 4 going into Turn 1, and I was up to Brad’s tire,” Polewarczyk said of the incident. “At that point, as a driver I said to myself, ‘I’m in here now.’ It’s the other driver’s job to respect that, and if not, there’s going to be contact. Brad took a hard left to try and come down in front of me, and I felt like I had earned that spot and that’s where I should have been.
“I hate getting booed, and I hate confrontation like that. It kills me, because I’m friends with Brad, and he’s a great guy. Hopefully we can get past this. But I promise you that, if he was in my shoes, he would have done the same thing.”
Polewarczyk started on the pole and led the first 112 laps, holding the lead through three cautions for minor spins. However, he was unable to shake Babb, who kept Polewarczyk in his sights after starting third. Babb, of Windham, Maine, eventually got to Polewarczyk’s inside and took the lead on lap 113.
After riding in Babb’s tire tracks for 20 laps, Pole went on the attack. He first tried the inside, then switched to the outside, nosing ahead for a circuit as the two went four-wide through lapped traffic. Babb eventually held him off and Pole switched back to the inside, setting up the incident in the closing laps.
Moltz, of Waterford, Conn., finished second while Bobby Therrien beat Jimmy Hebert in a photo finish for third. Wayne Helliwell Jr. took fifth after starting 17th. Emily Packard, Rowland Robinson Jr., Travis Fadden, Eddie MacDonald, and Nick Sweet completed the top-10.
Babb ended up 11th.
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