Brandon Barker Reigns in 53rd Annual Nitro Trailers Oxford 250

Brandon Barker added his name to the list of Oxford 250 winners on Sunday, claiming the 53rd Annual Nitro Trailers Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Barker dominated the second stanza of a race that truly proved to be the tale of two halves. Rainfall interrupted the prestigious event after 126 of 250 scheduled laps, with Barker running second to Gabe Brown at the time of the red flag.

Oxford Plains Speedway and Pro All Stars Series officials committed to making every effort to complete the full, 250-lap scheduled distance, with intense track-drying efforts following the rain. At approximately 11:30 p.m. local time, the race resumed, and Barker took the lead shortly thereafter when Brown went to pit road.

When a caution flew with 46 laps to go, Barker, leader D.J. Shaw and many others pitted, while others stayed out to gain track position. Barker restarted ninth, but picked up several spots as Cory Hall made contact with Scott McDaniel on the restart, who then slid into Bubba Pollard.

Barker took the lead for the final time on lap 212, pacing the remaining 38 laps for his first Oxford 250 victory in his ninth attempt in the crown jewel event.

"A lot of people to thank," said Barker in victory lane. "I couldn't do this without so many people. My parents couldn't afford it, so guys like Jimmy Burgess stepped up, Sam and Jaimy Snow, Sam Snow Construction, Archie St. Hilaire, them guys at Landshark, Kyle, Eric and Mickey.

"A good day in the 250 for me would be, maybe, a top-10. Being able to work with these guys, they boost my confidence so much and the cars are so good."

Especially after the lengthy delay that pushed the Oxford 250 into the early hours of Monday morning, the victory lane celebration felt too good to be true for Barker.

"It's surreal right now, but I think we've got a lot of beer in the cooler, still. We'll probably see the sun come up this morning."

Johnny Clark, the 2020 Oxford 250 winner, finished second, marking his eighth career top-five finish in the event in 22 attempts. However, he took very little credit for Sunday's performance.

"We didn't have a second-place car," Clark admitted. "The guys pulled off an unbelievable pit stop. We went into the pits, and my brother was telling me, you've just got to maintain. They put two tires on when a lot of people hit pit road on lap 90-something. We put rears on, and the thing was brutal tight.

"It started to come around, and then rain came. We didn't know what the track was going to do, but I could tell you it tightens up real bad. I was a sitting duck on the outside, and we fell back to 12th or something.

"We went into the pits around there and came out, D.J. [Shaw] was the only one to beat us out of the pits. It's all to them why we're standing here with a second-place trophy. I can't thank them enough."

Joey Doiron finished third, his fourth time on the podium in the Oxford 250. Doiron entered the evening still searching for his first victory in the event after rattling off top-10 finishes in six consecutive attempts between 2018 and 2024.

However, Doiron took little joy in his third-place result, offering his apologies to D.J. Shaw for contact between the two drivers in the final 50 laps.

"I've just got to apologize to D.J. I just got in there, I hadn't been loose in all day," said Doiron. "I just made a mistake. I just got in there, tried to stay off him, but we were so close, there was nothing that I could do. I've been on the other end of that before, so I'm hoping we can talk it out. We'll see."

Ryan Kuhn finished fourth, while Alexendre Tardif recovered from an up-and-down evening to finish fifth.

Oxford 250 proceedings started on Sunday with five heat races after the blind draw to determine the qualifying race lineups. Barker won the fifth heat race to earn the fifth starting spot on the grid, behind fellow heat race winners Tardif, Shaw, McDaniel, and Garrett Hall.

Derek Griffith and Doiron won the two consolation races that followed, with Troy Patterson winning the Last Chance Race.

Barker will have a chance at more Oxford Plains Speedway glory next Monday, September 7. The Labor Day event marks the finale for the Oxford Championship Series, including a 100-lap feature for the Mid-Coast Excavation Super Late Models. Barker enters the finale one point behind seven-time track champion Mike Rowe in the points standings.

-Photo credit: Oxford Plains Speedway

53rd Annual Oxford 250 Unofficial Results