At some point today, Ricky Rolfe will follow the advice he gives younger drivers trying to cope with the marathon that is the TD Banknorth 250. He'll take a deep breath. He may take several.

If the history and tradition of Maine's most important stock car race doesn't overwhelm, the competition to make the starting field will. For every driver who qualifies during the several rounds of heat races, another doesn't. For the one driver who celebrates with his crew, the 40 or so others who started the race will go home frustrated or dejected.

In the past 35 races, more hearts have been broken than have soared. "I'm not going take it to my grave that I didn't win," said Rolfe, a 45-year-old driver and car builder from Albany Township. "But winning means a lot because this race is big. All of it. Big fields of cars, big crowds, big paycheck. Even if I finish last, it's still a blast to run."

Rolfe finished second to Ben Rowe and ahead of Sprint Cup star Matt Kenseth in 2004. Last year he was 27th, three laps behind another Sprint Cup visitor, Kevin Harvick, who won $37,300. Today, Rolfe will be a teammate of veteran Sprint Cup driver Kenny Wallace, who raced several times at Oxford Plains Speedway in the mid-1990s. The TD Banknorth 250 was part of NASCAR's top minor leagues series, now known by its Nationwide sponsor.

Wallace's older brother, Rusty, serves at the race's grand marshal today. Rusty's son Steve has also entered. Five years ago, he became the youngest driver at age 17 to win the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Fla., the Southern counterpart to the TD Banknorth 250.

The so-called hired guns have been part of this race before. Harvick's win last summer, Kyle Busch's duel with 2006 winner Jeremie Whorff of Bath, and Kenseth's third-place finish have poked holes in the notion that they entered the race at the track owner's request to promote ticket sales and not contend for the top prize. The TD Banknorth 250 payoff can support a local driver for the rest of the season.

Former track owner Bob Bahre came up with the idea for a race that would grab wide attention and promoted the first one in 1974. It ran 200 green-flag laps. Meaning, any lap run under caution wasn't counted. He added 50 more laps the next year and the race became known simply as the Oxford 250.

The look of the race has changed several times. In its early years, more drivers hauled their race cars north from North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Track ownership changed hands twice. Different tours have applied their own rules to the race. Current owner Bill Ryan Jr. initiated a dramatic change several years ago when the TD Banknorth 250 became a race for less expensive Late Model Sportsman cars. And that was before the economy nose-dived. The shift from the Pro Stock cars and their bigger engines angered those drivers and their fans.

Today's car count may very well be off the 100-plus cars that have crowded the back pits at Oxford Plains in the past. Expenses for the TD Banknorth 250 can cost a car owner several thousand dollars and sponsor money is scarce. With more race fans out of work, fewer may be in the grandstand.

The race, however, is a survivor. Others have tried to emulate the TD Banknorth 250 at other short tracks in New England but there's been little success.

"This is our race," said Shawn Martin of Turner, who finished fourth in the past two races. He and most of the others will never contend for a NASCAR ride in Sprint Cup or on the Nationwide Series. That's why emotions will run high today.

"All of us need to relax," said Rolfe. "I'm no different from the young drivers. We won't sleep well the night before. We won't eat well in the morning. We have to remember to not let nerves drive us."

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

ssolloway@pressherald.com