UNITY – It was like old times.

Two of the winningest drivers in the history of Maine stock car racing renewed their rivalry at the Budweiser 150 Pro All-Stars Series feature at Unity Raceway and 54-year-old Mike Rowe of Turner held off 65-year-old Ralph Nason to take the checkered flag.

“It was a lot of fun. It’s great racing with him,” said Rowe, who started second, took the lead from Freedom pole-sitter Randy Turner on the first lap and only surrendered the lead for one brief moment when Nason slipped by him on lap 105 after Rowe and Hallowell’s Johnny Clark got tangled up.

Rowe quickly got around Nason and survived five more cautions and subsequent restarts over the final 45 laps.

There were 12 cautions in all, 10 coming over the final 75 laps.

The last restart came with 12 laps to go and Nason tried to get past Rowe on the outside but Rowe was simply too good on the inside groove.

“The car was pretty good all day. I hated to see those cautions but we got good restarts. We had real good grip off the turns,” said Rowe, who collected his second win of the season and fifth top-three in nine PASS races.

“We couldn’t keep up on the restarts. The car kept revving in second gear,” said Unity’s Nason, who finished two car-lengths behind Rowe.

“We couldn’t get up out of the turns.”

Nason said his Chevy Monte Carlo got better on the longer runs.

“I wish we had another 100 laps,” said Nason.

Twenty-three-year-old Cassius Clark of Farmington was third and had mixed emotions about his finish.

“I thought I had the better car but it was pretty hard to get around those guys up front. They’ve been around a long time,” said Clark. “My car was a little tight. It was hard to get [pass] outside because it was pushing.”

Clark’s top-three finish was his sixth in nine races.

Morrill’s Travis Benjamin had an impressive fourth-place finish as he maneuvered his way through the field after a trip to the pits left him in 13th place with 63 laps remaining.

Benjamin actually got up to third on lap 140 before Clark edged him out for the third spot.

Defending PASS points champ Johnny Clark wound up fifth and took over the points lead from Turner’s Ben Rowe, Mike’s son.

Johnny Clark’s top-five finish was his eighth in nine races.

Ben Rowe finished 20th after bumping with Johnny Clark on lap 133 and sliding down the embankment between turns two and three. He didn’t return.

Turner was sixth and rounding out the top 10 were Wells’ Donnie Whitten, Hollis Center’s Richie Dearborn, Cushing’s Chuck Lachance and Anson’s Scott Moore.

Hebron’s Alan Wilson and Boothbay’s Corey Williams were the only other two drivers on the lead lap and they finished 11th and 12th, respectively.

There were 26 cars in the race.

Johnny Clark battled Rowe for the lead for a healthy portion of the race but Rowe was strong on the inside and, the few times Clark appeared to have a shot to pass him on the outside, the wily Rowe would slide up the track enough to force Clark to lift in order to avoid sliding off the track.

After Rowe took the lead by passing Turner in the outside groove, he gradually pulled away from the pack as Johnny and Cassius Clark (no relation) duelled for second place.

There was plenty of green flag racing until lap 75, when the second caution came out and triggered a series of cautions spanning the remainder of the race.

Johnny Clark and Mike Rowe, who took each other out of contention for a win at Unity on June 19 when they tangled late in the race, continued their duel on lap 87.

Rowe forced Clark into the dirt on the back stretch as Clark tried to pass and Clark then nudged Rowe and forced him to bobble the car momentarily.

The nudged each other again on lap 105, enabling Nason to surge into the lead.

But Rowe quickly got on the gas and regained his lead for good.

In addition to the 12 cautions, there were also a couple of false starts.

Nason actually took the lead from Rowe on one of those late restarts that was nullified.

Little Deer Isle’s Matt Eaton was examined by ambulance attendants after crashing into the embankment on turn one during a heat race.

His car had no hood or side panels covering on the front of the car when he returned for the start of the feature but he managed to finish 147 laps and wind up 19th after starting last (26th).