Bill Ryan is not your typical stock car short-track owner. He received a degree in political science from prestigious Williams College (Mass.) in 1989 and obtained a law degree from Suffolk University in Boston four years later.

But the Topsfield, Mass., native, who owns Oxford Plains Speedway, used to vacation with his family in the town of Denmark and he would venture over to OPS to watch races.

“That was the first place I ever saw a live race,” said Ryan.

When his legal career didn’t pan out – “I’d spend 12 hours in a room reading legal documents and getting headaches” – he got involved in sports marketing with Paul Lufkin, who had “done everything in racing there was to do for 25 years.”

Ryan said he and Lufkin were “sponsor hunters.”

“We tried to find companies that wanted to put their name on race cars [in IndyCar and NASCAR series], ” said Ryan.

They also contacted track owners and when Ryan contacted Mike Liberty at OPS and the rest of the management team to see if they needed sponsorship help, he was floored by a proposal.

“They said why don’t you buy this place?,” said Ryan.

Ryan told them he didn’t have that kind of money but “they worked out a [financial] structure that worked for both of us. We started talking at the start of 1998 and by the end of 1998, I owned it.”

In just eight years, his accomplishments as a track owner have been noteworthy.

Topping the list is the fact he has been able to attract NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers to the TD Banknorth Oxford 250 for three consecutive years.

The winners of the last two Nextel Cup races, Denny Hamlin (Pocono) and Kyle Busch (New Hampshire International Speedway), will be in the field for Sunday’s TD Banknorth Oxford 250 along with J.J. Yeley and Newburgh’s Ricky Craven, who has 278 Nextel Cup races and two wins to his credit.

Ryan said he had always wanted to book Nextel Cup drivers for the 250 and when the 2004 Cup schedule provided the drivers with an off weekend in July, Ryan went to work.

“NASCAR released the schedule in November, 2003 and I was on the phone five minutes after they released it,” he said.

“I contacted every Cup connection I had,” said Ryan, a 38-year-old father of four. “It was a little bit of a hard sell the first year.”

Matt Kenseth, the 2003 Nextel Cup points champion who had run short tracks in his native Wisconsin, had heard about the 250 and signed on.

After Kenseth committed, Roush Racing teammate Kurt Busch came on board.

Kurt Busch had a previous commitment last year but he mentioned it to his brother, Kyle, and Kyle Busch raced the 250 last year as well as Kenseth.

Word of mouth has made it easier to attract Cup drivers but Ryan said it has “never been easy.”

He said he was paid the ultimate compliment from the legendary Bobby Allison at NHIS a few years ago when Allison said “I heard you had a great race last weekend.”

Ryan acknowledges that he “probably isn’t that typical” of most track owners “but I definitely have the same passion for the sport the other owners have.”

He has held a number of interesting events like school bus races but he doesn’t consider himself an innovator.

“I’m just a smart copycat. I try to learn as much as I can from other people in the business across the country,” Ryan said.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.