Max Cookson of Palmyra celebrates after winning the Boss Hogg 150 on Sunday at Wiscasset Speedway. Photo by Travis Barrett
WISCASSET — Max Cookson decided to turn a scheduled weekend off into a money-making opportunity.
Cookson led the final 66 laps Sunday at Wiscasset Speedway, holding off two-time winner Mike Hopkins to claim his first Boss Hogg 150 win.
Cookson earned $10,000 for the victory, the second-largest Super Late Model prize in Maine this year.
The win didn’t come in Cookson’s primary car. Instead, it was the car that Georgia racer Bubba Pollard ran as Cookson’s teammate in the Oxford 250 a week earlier.
“We knew about (this race), obviously, and as long as 250 went good, we were going to race it,” said Cookson, of Palmyra. “This is the car Bubba wrecked in the 250, so it was a long week in the shop getting it ready to go.
“We had a couple issues the first two rounds of practice, but we got it right for the third round. This thing was just really good.”
Hopkins, of Hermon, finished second for the third time in this race, with 2022 Pro All Stars Series champion Ryan Kuhn of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, completing the podium. Current Wiscasset Speedway points leader Josh St. Clair of Liberty and Massachusetts driver Angelo Belsito finished fourth and fifth.
Hopkins, who won last year’s Boss Hogg 150, rallied from 15th in the 32-car starting field to the top-five by Lap 47. He got past St. Clair, who led all but eight of the race’s first 45 laps from the pole, for second place just in time for the race’s final restart on Lap 100.
Hopkins nosed under Cookson on Lap 107, and the two drag-raced around the .375-mile oval for five laps until Cookson made the outside groove stick enough to hold the lead for good.
“We were way too tight,” Hopkins said. “About 40 laps in, we got tight, tight. I could manage (turns) three and four better than most and get a run, and then the rest I’d just hold on.
“This is how our year’s gone. We’ve given three or four away from just being too tight.”
Cookson said he’d watched Hopkins use the outside lane midway through the race and wasn’t worried about not having enough grip out there.
“I felt like the top really came in there at the end,” Cookson said. “I thought I’d just keep fighting, and I’m glad I did.”
Cookson was one of four heat-race winners to start inside the top five for the feature.
The defending Oxford Plains Speedway champion and current PASS point leader – though only in his third full season of racing stock cars – dabbled with the lead on a Lap 36 restart before settling in behind St. Clair. Eventually, though, Cookson took over the second half of the event.
Cookson, 20, stopped short of calling the victory the biggest of his young career, but did say it was a significant one.
“This is definitely pretty up there with some of the PASS wins,” Cookson said. “It’s just a cool one to win.”
Former winner Ben Ashline, Austin Teras, Dan McKeage Jr., Garrett Hall and former track champion Kevin Douglass finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Fifteen cars finished on the lead lap.
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