Steve Craig starts the Oxford 250 with the green flag. Brewster Burns

OXFORD – Joey Doiron led for much of the first half of the Oxford 250, which was interrupted by a three-hour rain delay on Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway.

The Berwick driver maintained the lead for most of the race, overtaking pole winner Ryan Kuhn early on and leading until lap 117 when the race was stopped at 6:52 p.m. due to rain and lightning.

The race resumed at 21:52, but the next 15 laps were marked by several crashes.

A caution period followed shortly after the restart on lap 122, and after 10 minutes under the yellow flag, the race resumed. Almost immediately after another restart, DJ Shaw, who was running in third place, lost power, causing a pile-up that sent the race into another caution period.

At press time, Doiron was still in first place after 139 laps completed, Garrett Hall was second and Mike Hopkins, Derek Griffith and Garrett Lamb completed the top five.

Doiron made his attack early and quickly maneuvered past Kuhn from the No. 2 position to take the lead. He lapped Rusty Poland on lap 22 and then began passing the rest of the field, holding off Derek Griffith and Bubba Pollard through caution periods on lap 52, lap 58, lap 72 and lap 75.

It is the second year in a row that bad weather has forced a significant delay. Last year’s race start was delayed by two hours. The Oxford 250 has been postponed to another day three times in the race’s 51-year history: 1979, 1986, 2008.

This story will be updated.

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