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Nick Brown

TD BANKNORTH 250

WHEN: Sunday. Practice heats begin at 8 a.m., qualifying heats at 2 p.m., Race at 6:30 p.m. (approximately)

WHERE: Oxford Plains Speedway, Route 26, Oxford

TICKETS: Reserved: $30-$50; general admission: $30; two-day pit passes $70-$80

PORTLAND — Nick Brown isn't much different from other 18-year-old recent high school graduates who are long on dreams and short on experience. He's earning a little money this summer and trying to bank a little.

He'll attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte this fall. He's already declared his major: mechanical engineering. Got his minor picked, too.

"Auto racing," said Brown. "I love it." He lives it, too.

For one so young, Brown didn't look out of place at the traditional midweek press conference for the TD Banknorth 250. He sat between veteran drivers Ricky Rolfe and Tim Brackett at the head table. Glen Luce and Joey Polewarczyk Jr., who ran second and third to winner Kevin Harvick, sat on the other side of the podium.

Everywhere Brown looked, he saw his elders, even if Joey Pole, as he's called, is only two years older. Brown's eyes didn't get big. He didn't even try to talk big.

"This is my first attempt at qualifying (for the TD Banknorth 250)," said Brown after he stepped away from the table and watched the media swarm the other drivers. "I just want to make the race."

He represents the new blood that every sport needs. He earned his spot at the head table by winning a 40-lap race at Oxford Plains Speedway a week after he graduated from Morse High. Three years ago he was a kid in the pits, another pair of hands helping Jeremie Whorff outrun Kyle Busch for the 2006 TD Banknorth 250 victory.

Brown wasn't behind the wheel, but he got a taste of the satisfaction and the joy of winning this grueling race. He played football and wrestled for the Shipbuilders when he got to Morse, but the intensity of those sports didn't quite match what he found at the race track.

"It was either play football and wrestle or work on the race car," said Brown. "I couldn't do both. You can't win in a race car without a team behind you. Racing is like football in that way. But I really love being in that race car."

He's had practice explaining why he races. He took Kate Thibodeau, a Morse basketball player, to the prom this spring. Now he's taking her to her first big race. Brown has tried to explain the excitement and tension and frustration.

He also needed to reassure her after Charlie Webster lost his life at the track Wednesday night after his car crashed into a wall during a race.

"Kate was the one who told me," said Brown. "I didn't know Charlie, but my thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family. It is a tragedy. We're doing this for fun.

"I won't think about it when I'm in the car. If you do, you'll start holding back, and you can't race that way. Kate was really worried, but I told her my father and I spare no money on safety."

He has the Late Model Sportsman car that Brent Dragon raced to a seventh-place finish last year. It has run consistently well for Brown in his rookie season. He feels comfortable racing the three-eighths mile oval at Oxford Plains.

How much he gets pushed out of that comfort zone by the anxiety and stress of Sunday's qualifying heats in the afternoon and the race itself later in the evening is something else.

"I think I was 8 when I went to my first (TD Banknorth 250). Ralph Nason won. I was with my family. It was exciting. I knew I wanted a future in this sport."

He raced go-karts on Maine tracks and elsewhere in New England. He moved up to Legend cars, scaled down versions or racing coupes from nearly 70 years ago. His future, after college, may be in working on or building race cars or being a crew chief. Right now, he simply wants to drive.

Friday afternoon he hauled his race car to Oxford Plains. "I'm ready," he said at the end of a brief phone conversation. "In fact, I can't wait."

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com