It had been so long, maybe Jeff White just wanted to make sure he knew how to get victory lane.
White survived a scary trip down the Oxford Plains Speedway frontstretch on Saturday night, diving low to avoid the spinning lapped car of Corey Morgan, to win his first career Late Model feature event. Tommy Ricker finished second, while Dennis Spencer Jr. was third.
White had not won a race – in any division, premier or otherwise – at Oxford Plains since 1998, when he won in the now-defunct Limited Sportsman ranks. But, to him, it felt a long longer than 10 years.
"I was pretty nervous, because it’s been quite a while since I won a race," said White, of Winthrop. "We never won in our (Super Late Model), we never won in our Late Model. We haven’t won since, like, 1980 in our Limited (Sportsman) days – a long time, a long time ago."
White started fourth in the 22-car field for the 40-lap main event, but he needed just three laps to move into second and two laps later nosed ahead of David Vaughan for the lead he would not relinquish.
But it wasn’t as simple as all that.
On lap 33, as White coasted along a half-straighaway ahead of Ricker, teenager Ben Ashline got a little rambunctious at the back of the pack and spun Morgan as the two cars raced off of turn four. White came up on the incident in a hurry, veering sharply to the left – and taking an impromptu trip through Oxford’s victory lane before returning to the racing surface with a lead that had been whittled down to a few car lengths.
"I was thinking, ‘Holy (crap), what am I going to do now?’" White said.
Ricker, who posted a career-best finish of his own in second, said his eyes grew wide when he saw Morgan spinning and White swerving.
"I thought that I had a chance," said Ricker, of Poland. "That was the only chance I had."
While it may have been Ricker’s best chance, it actually wasn’t his only chance.
On lap 35, the caution flew for the second and final time, giving Ricker a restart opportunity to the immediate outside of White.
"He had a little more snot than we did tonight," Ricker said.
White, who hasn’t raced the entire schedule this season, said he wasn’t nervous at all.
"I felt that I had a pretty good car underneath me for that last restart," he said. "I felt my car could hold anybody off. The car’s been going great. When you get out front it’s a lot easier than it is back in the pack."
Three-time Oxford champion Travis Adams finished fifth to extend his lead atop the division to 39 points over Shawn Martin with just next week’s race remaining. Martin finished ninth and thought his title chances had been killed.
"There’s no nails in the coffin as far as motorsports are concerned," Adams said. "Absolutely none."
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