OXFORD – There was a rare double rainbow in the midst of a 31/2-hour delay at the rain-married 35th annual TD Banknorth Oxford 250 Monday night.

But the race was well worth the one-day wait after it was postponed following the fifth of 12 heat races on Sunday night.

NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kevin Harvick, who is currently running ninth in the Sprint Cup points, took the lead from Camping World East series regular Eddie MacDonald on lap 133 and held off a late charge by Turner’s Glen Luce to take the checkered flag.

Luce, an American-Canadian Tour rookie who started 38th after winning a last-chance qualifying race earlier in the day, picked his way through the field and moved into second place with 25 laps to go.

When Derek Ramstrom spun out on turn one with 10 laps remaining, causing the race’s 13th caution, Luce had one opportunity on the restart to make a run at Harvick.

There was a lapped car between the two as Luce started right behind Harvick on the restart instead of on his outside.

But the 32-year-old Harvick was strong on restarts all night and Luce couldn’t catch the Bakersfield, Calif., native.

Harvick, who started 11th, crossed the finish line 41/2 car-lengths ahead of Luce.

Harvick, who has 11 Sprint Cup wins and 32 Nationwide victories, pocketed $37,300 for his triumph.

He hasn’t won in the Cup or Nationwide series this season although he has three top fives and six top 10s in 19 Cup races and six top fives and seven top 10s in 14 Nationwide races.

He is the first Sprint Cup driver to win the TD Banknorth Oxford 250. Matt Kenseth, who finished third in 2004, had been the highest-finishing Cup driver. Brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch, Terry Labonte, Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley are among the other Cup drivers to run the 250 over the last seven years.

Joey Polewarczyk Jr. of Hudson, N.H., finished third with Frenchville native Shawn Martin and Turner’s Ben Rowe rounding out the top five. Nick Sweet of Barre, Vt., was sixth, Brent Dragon of Milton, Vt. was seventh, MacDonald was eighth, Dennis Spencer Jr. of Oxford was ninth and Randy Potter of Groveton, N.H., was 10th.

“I thought [Luce] was going to catch us. But I was able to kind of run in the middle of the track and start picking up a little bit. Then we caught up to the pack there and we were able to make up a little ground,” said Harvick. “The caution was good for me. The right rear tire was kind of hot.”

Harvick said he felt he had a good enough car to win the race “at this morning’s practice.

“We were OK and then we struggled and this morning we figured out we had one set of tires that wasn’t quite right. We ran the heat race on those but started the race with the second set of right- side tires, the one set we could put on if we had trouble. We swapped those out and the car was better but it was still too tight and then we put on that last set of tires and the car was awesome,” said Harvick.

Harvick said his stout restarts resulted from his decision to shift gears.

“I got brave enough to start shifting. I don’t think anybody else was shifting,” said Harvick. “We were able to shift in third gear. I got in trouble the first time. I guess there’s a line across the racetrack – I didn’t know that – in which you were supposed to stay even [with the car next to you] until that point.

“The car would take off really good and stay right on the bottom. That was definitely the right thing to have happen. The car was a little bit better on the shorter runs,” added Harvick. “If we had had to go 100 laps, I don’t know if we had the best car. But for the runs we had tonight it was good.”

MacDonald led 119 of the first 126 laps leading up to a competition caution that was mandated because of the wet conditions in the pits.

MacDonald started third, but moved into the lead on lap five and led all but two laps up until the competition caution.

However, his car was never the same after the caution and Harvick took the lead from him on lap 127. MacDonald recaptured the lead on lap 132 but Harvick took it back on the next lap and never looked back.

“We had a good race with [MacDonald] in that first part of the second half. That was a lot of fun,” said Harvick.

Harvick praised Shane Wilson of South Royalton, Vt., who was his crew chief and helped build the car. Wilson used to be Harvick’s crew chief in the Nationwide series.

Polewarczyk, who won an ACT race at OPS last month, led laps 53 and 54 before MacDonald regained the lead on lap 55. He ran the high groove and Harvick eventually ran well up there, also.

“He was catching me so I said I better go up there and try it or I’m going to get passed. Luckily, I saw what he was doing and moved up there and figured out the outside was okay, especially deep into the run. That was where you could really make up some ground,” said Harvick.

Luce said he saved his car until the latter stages of the race and might have been able to catch Harvick “in long greens, especially in traffic. But on those cold tires, he just took off and left me. Every time we had a restart, my rear stagger was closing up and putting wedge in the car. So it was just too darned tight. The last caution hurt me and helped Kevin.”

Still, Luce was ecstatic with his run.

“It feels like a win to me,” said Luce.

Polewarcyzk was also overjoyed with his finish.

“After that pit stop at halfway, we picked up a little bit of a push in the center. That’s why I had to go so far up the track,” said Polewarcyzk. “But to finish third is still awesome.”

MacDonald put pole-sitter and 2002 race winner Scott Robbins of Dixfield a lap down on lap 98.

There were two cautions in the first nine laps and there were eight cautions prior to the competition caution.

The fans got a charge out of watching 2007 Daytona 500 winner Harvick tangle with Denmark’s Carey Martin from laps 45-50. Harvick was trying to maneuver past Martin into fifth place, but Martin held the faster inside groove. The frustrated Harvick stuck the nose of his car underneath Martin’s back bumper and gave him a series of taps to try to loosen Martin’s car up.

But Martin held him off and Harvick tried unsuccessfully to pass him on the slower outside groove.

Martin eventually fell back and Harvick moved up to second on lap 98 and was second at the competition caution.

Polewarczyk was third at the competition caution with Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas, who started 18th, in fourth place and Milton, Vt. native Brent Dragon, son of legendary New England racer Beaver Dragon, positioned in fifth place.

Poland’s Tommy Ricker started second and led a couple of early laps but began sliding back on lap five and wound up going to the pits with car trouble four laps later. He never returned.

Albany Township’s Ricky Rolfe, one of the pre-race favorites thanks to his five wins in six Late Model races at OPS, failed to qualify, but received a provisional for leading the OPS Late Model points. He started 40th and was involved in a wreck on lap nine in turn four with Derek Ramstrom and Dave MacDonald.

He eventually went down a lap and was never a factor.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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