Garrett Hall Goes Last to First, Wins Celebration of America 300 at Oxford Plains

Garrett Hall drove from last to first and held off a hard-charging Joey Doiron to score the victory in the Coldbrook Trailers & Equipment Celebration of America 300 on Wednesday night, the second leg of the Oxford Plains Crown Jewel Triple Crown Series.

Hall started at the rear of the 32-car field in a car that didn't even start the day on the property at Oxford Plains Speedway.

"I left the racetrack at 5 o'clock and drove to Scarborough to pick this car up," said Hall. "The [primary] car blew up, and this car, we won at Star. We just went off our setup notes from last year at the [Oxford] 250, mocked it all up and said, well, let's see what the heck happens here."

Despite all of that and older tires at the end of the 300-lap PASS Super Late Model race, Hall fended off the charges of Doiron and Austin Teras for the $20,000 victory.

With Hall headed towards the flag stand two laps away from victory, Teras spun after contact from the lapped car of MIke Rowe, which led to a further altercation between those two drivers and dashed Teras' shot at the win. It also set up a one-lap shootout for the victory, where Hall held strong on the inside lane and crossed the finish line 0.098 seconds ahead of Doiron.

"I thought I was coming back to the white, and then I saw the checkered flag there," said Hall about the last-lap restart. "I said, 'Oh, perfect!'"

A caution with 54 laps to go brought a leading Doiron and many of the front-runners to pit road, while Hall stayed out as he had already put on his last set of tires. He figured his chances of a victory were gone with that caution, but knew from earlier in the race he could manage his tires and keep track position.

He did more than that, staying in front of the field for a huge victory at Oxford Plains.

"When that caution came out around lap 250, I was like, hopefully we can salvage a top-five out of this. Luckily, the car and the tires, we kept underneath me.

"I knew that when we pitted around lap 180 and I was running with guys who pitted around lap 100, I was still running with them and the car felt good and really stable. I knew that if I managed tires after we pitted early, there was a disadvantage to starting at the tail [by pitting later].

"It really just starstruck me. I just maintained the car, drove it, kept it on the bottom. It's just one of those things, from last to first, I never would have imagined it in a million years."

Of course, the second race in the Triple Crown Series sets the table for the 52nd Annual Oxford 250, scheduled for August 22-24. However, Hall is not letting Wednesday's win create overconfidence ahead of the biggest race of the year at the 3/8-mile facility.

"That's a whole another race in itself. That's a whole another jackpot, I guess, if you want to call it. That's one that takes a lot of years to get. Not that we can't get there, but you've just got to have a good car, tires, everything has to go your way. It definitely fuels us that we have momentum rolling into it."

Doiron settled for second place, battling the emotions of the runner-up finish. From battling with a good friend for the victory to wondering what he could have done differently after leading more than half of the race's distance, there was plenty to consider for the Memorial Day Clash 200 winner.

"It's just hard to race your friends," said Doiron. "I tried to do Garrett as fair as I could. It's tough. I don't really know what I needed there. I just wasn't quite as good on that last set of tires. I was a little tight, and as soon as I got to Garrett, I got pretty tight. I tried to race him the best I could. I felt like I did a pretty good job, and it was a pretty good show.

"I didn't really know what I needed there with that yellow with 50 to go. I felt like if we weren't gonna run out of fuel, we could have just stayed green, but I don't think we would have made it, so it's probably a good thing the yellow came out. We were able to come down, get that last set of tires and fill it with fuel."

Brandon Barker, who lined up alongside Teras on the front row to start the race, finished third. Barker struggled and fell as far back as 17th in his Go Fas Racing entry, but rallied in the final stages for a podium finish.

"Well, the middle stage wasn't very fun," said Barker. "But these guys went to work on it and definitely got it a heck of a lot better for the last 50 laps or whatever we had to do there."

Johnny Clark finished fourth, with Trevor Sanborn rounding out the top five.

-Photo credit: Connor Sullivan

Coldbrook Trailers & Equipment Celebration of America 300 Unofficial Results