Driver DJ Shaw participates in Oxford 250 media day at Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday. Shaw, based in Center Conway, New Hampshire, won the Oxford Championship Series 100 earlier this month to qualify for Sunday’s race. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)

OXFORD — D.J. Shaw is familiar with the question.

How hasn’t he — one of New England’s top drivers, the reigning Pro All Star Series North and National champion, with multiple podium finishes and years of experience racing Super Late Models at the Oxford Plains Speedway — won the Oxford 250 yet?

The 35-year-old from Center Conway, New Hampshire, would like an answer just as much as the people asking.

Driver DJ Shaw participates in Oxford 250 media day at Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)

“I wish I knew, honestly,” Shaw said at Wednesday’s Oxford 250 media day. “Two years in a row of (finishing) third, and we’re just there, but not in the right spot. Just need to have a little bit better car. I feel like we’re executing well as a team to be able to finish on the podium like that, but just need to have a little bit better car. You’re never going to luck into one of these things, so you just got to be a little bit better, and have the perfect day, and that’ll be the recipe we need. Hopefully.”

Going into his 16th Oxford 250 attempt on Sunday, Shaw has driven countless laps around the track — three-eighths of a mile long — that is home to Maine’s biggest race and one of the crown jewels of short-track racing. He’s crossed the finish line in third place four times, including 2023 and 2024. It’s the most podium finishes for a driver without a win. But it’s not like Shaw, the current PASS North points leader, hasn’t had success at Oxford Plains.

On Aug. 9, he drove the No. 60 car to a win in the Oxford Championship Series’ 100-lap SLM feature, a qualifier for the 250, after taking the lead on lap 16. The next day, during the PASS SLM Stearns & Daughters 150, Shaw ran it back to victory lane, winning his fifth career PASS SLM race at Oxford Plains after taking the lead on lap 122.

Shaw originally planned to race two different cars that weekend, the one he’d used all season for Saturday and a newer one for Sunday. After getting his first win at Oxford Plains since 2022, plans changed.

“That first race was more or less a filler for us, just to get track time, build a notebook and things like that, and we ended up winning in a big way,” Shaw said. “Obviously, it was hard to put that one in the trailer the next day, so we ran it again, and we were able to come from 15th and win again. So, that became the unexpected primary (car) for us, and I guess we’ll just leave the new car new for now. It can sit home and wait to have its day another day.”

New Hampshire driver DJ Shaw holds the hand of his daughter, Bristol, while speaking to fellow driver Trevor Sanborn at Wednesday’s Oxford 250 media day at Oxford Plains Speedway. Shaw won the Oxford Championship Series 100 earlier this month to qualify for Sunday’s race. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)

Shaw, a six-time PASS North champion and two-time PASS National champion, hopes that the momentum built up earlier in the month will carry over to Sunday’s main event.

“It’s hard to win two in a row, but it’s harder to win three races in a row, so hopefully we didn’t shoot our shot too soon,” Shaw said. “Hopefully we’ve got one more left in there for the important one, and we can check that one off.”

Recent history has shown that paying dues eventually pays off.

Farmington’s Jeff Taylor won the 2024 race, his first victory in 28 attempts, and has since retired. It took 14 tries for Cassius Clark, also of Farmington, to win it all in 2021. Johnny Clark, of Hallowell, won his first 250 in 2020, nearly 15 years after his last touring win at OPS.

Experience is great, but even to Mike Rowe — the winningest driver at Oxford Plains Speedway with three 250 titles to his name (1984, 1997, 2005) — knows that sometimes a good run is left to chance.

“To me, it’s the luck of the draw,” Rowe said at media day. “You’ve got to draw a good number to start up front. The cars are so close together, you can’t draw dead last. If you do, it’s a long day.”

Driver DJ Shaw participates in Oxford 250 media day at Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)

Derek Griffith has had a wide range in results in his more than a decade worth of attempts at OPS. From not qualifying to leading laps and finishing on the podium, but the 28-year-old from Litchfield, New Hampshire, is still looking for his first victory, too.

“Oxford is a weird place,” Griffith said Thursday, a few days after becoming a father. “There’s not really a lot of sense to be made with what happens at that racetrack. … I’ve been so close — I’ve been third, I’ve been second, I’ve led laps. But it’s just getting the whole entire puzzle to finish, (that’s) so difficult. And, like I said, I’d rather be lucky than good in that deal, because it’s a really, really hard race to find some luck in, for sure.”

Griffith says one of the things that makes Shaw such a successful driver is his ability to remain “in the mix, no matter what.” With a competitive field primed for Sunday, Shaw not only hopes to stay in the mix, but come out on top.

“We’ve found a lot of ways to lose, so hopefully we find a way to win and just not another way to lose one,” Shaw said. “Experience is always on our side. The older I get, the more experience I have, and the more questions you answer about, ‘Are you ever going to win one of these things?’ The last few years between Cassius, Johnny, and Taylor last year, I hope I’m the next guy that’s put in my time and can be there at the end.”