Rain washes out action at racetracks in Maine

Rain was the big winner over the weekend as stock car racing action statewide was washed out.

Unity Raceway

Saturday night’s racing program at Unity Raceway was postponed by wet weather and has been rescheduled as part of a June 8-9 doubleheader.

Unity will hold its regular racing card Friday beginning at 7:30 p.m., while Saturday’s slate, to include a Penny Pounce for the kids, is slated to start at 6:30.

Speedway 95

For the second consecutive week, rain forced postponement of racing at Speedway 95 in Hermon.

The scheduled 50-lap strictly street feature and 35-lap sport four races have been moved to Sunday, June 10, at 2 p.m. and will be run in conjunction with the 50-lap limited sportsman feature and the regular racing program.

Oxford Plains Speedway

Steady rain forced postponement of Sunday’s New England Dodge Dealers 100 at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Harvick has productive day

DOVER, Del. – After a section of grandstand was dedicated to the late Dale Earnhardt, rookie Kevin Harvick ran well as the successor to The Intimidator with an eighth-place finish Sunday at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Harvick, the points leader among rookies, moved up from the Busch series after seven-time Winston Cup champion Earnhardt was killed Feb. 18 in the season-opening Daytona 500.

It was the second impressive showing in as many days for Harvick, a 25-year-old Californian who finished third in the MBNA 200 on Saturday. That gave him the Busch series points lead, and Sunday’s result left him 10th in Winston Cup points despite not racing at Daytona.

Harvick actually could have had a better day, but was grazed by Tony Stewart on pit road after running as high as fifth.

“Obviously, I can’t see out of the right rear of my car,” Harvick said of the contact. “I’d already committed to going straight.”

Harvick never really recovered from the slight damage caused by the bump on lap 267.

“That’s actually when our car went bad,” he said. “It made it loose.”

Harvick is establishing himself as a consistent threat on one of NASCAR’s most difficult tracks. Counting his Busch races, Harvick has a pole and three top 10 finishes in four tries at Dover. He has attributed some of his success to learning the track by playing a computer game.

He is only 39 points behind Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Not Labonte’s day

Bobby Labonte’s great run of success at Dover Downs International Speedway came to an end Sunday in the MBNA Platinum 400.

Labonte was hoping an eighth straight top five finish would further enhance his credentials as a master of The Monster Mile, where he won in 1999. But it never happened, and he wound up 12th in the race won by Jeff Gordon.

“It wasn’t great,” said the Winston Cup champion, who stands 12th in the points. “We just kind of struggled a little bit to figure out what we needed to go fast today.”

He and crew chief Jimmy Makar never came up with the answer.