Cole Butcher Goes Back-to-Back for Golden Oxford 250 Win

Cole Butcher wrote his name into a special chapter of the Oxford 250 history books in more ways than one on Sunday evening.

Butcher won the 50th Annual Spencer Group Paving Oxford 250 on Sunday, taking the lead on lap 224 from Joey Doiron. With the win on the event’s golden anniversary, Butcher became the first back-to-back winner of the event in nearly a decade.

“I can’t thank Butcher Racing, everybody, Distance Race Cars enough,” said Butcher. “We worked hard. These guys are the reason why I won. They had a hell of a pit stop. Unbelievable, two in a row, 50th anniversary, thank you Tom Mayberry, Mike Mayberry, Jason Ricker, PASS, it’s awesome.”

Despite winning his heat race to start the day, Butcher found himself quickly in the rear of the field. On lap seven, Butcher made contact with Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. in a battle for the lead, sending Renfrew spinning and Butcher to the rear of the field for his role in the incident.

“I got a little bit too hot early in the race and got into the 00 [of Renfrew],” said Butcher. “I apologize to them and their crew. It’s unreal.”

Nevertheless, the Nova Scotia native worked his way back through the field, muscling by Doiron with 27 laps to go and winning by a little more than a second.

With the win, Cole Butcher joins the list of back-to-back Oxford 250 winners. Others who have accomplished the feat include Geoff Bodine (1980-81), Ralph Nason (1998-2000), Ben Rowe (2003-04), Eddie MacDonald (2009-10), and Travis Benjamin (2013-14).

Doiron had an impressive drive of his own, starting in the final spot of the 41-car field with a provisional. Doiron inherited the lead on lap 184 when Brandon Barker inherited the top spot, and held off an advance from Johnny Clark before ultimately finishing behind Butcher.

“I knew the 53 [of Butcher] was going to be coming,” said Doiron. “You can look at the hood, he doesn’t pass anybody. It is what it is. He was better once he was out in front. I just got too tight behind him.

“Hopefully, one of these years, we’ll be able to get the top step on the podium. We’ll keep coming back until then.”

D.J. Shaw completed the podium, bouncing back from a spin earlier in the race of his own to get back into the top three.

“It was a good, solid night, all in all. We had a good strategy,” said Shaw. “I kind of skirted up there and got on the curb when we took two [tires]. I lost a lot of track position and got turned around. We had to ride it out there, it took a long time for it to come in on that run.

“We got by Cole and I thought we were sitting in a good spot. We didn’t have quite enough on our last set, but we got up there and finished where we deserved.”

Johnny Clark and Gabe Brown rounded out the top five. Max Cookson led nearly 80 laps during the first half of the race before finishing sixth, followed by Joey Pastore, Trevor Sanborn, Derek Griffith and Austin Teras.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy/Racing America

50TH ANNUAL SPENCER GROUP PAVING OXFORD 250 UNOFFICIAL RESULTS