OXFORD – Mike Rowe of Turner drove 405 laps Sunday en route to winning his third Oxford TD Banknorth 250.

He drove a 20-lap heat race, a 20-lap consolation race, a 50-lap last-chance hooligan feature and 315 Oxford 250 laps, including 65 caution laps.

Then he partied with his crew members and family until the wee hours of the morning.

But the 54-year-old Rowe was right back at work Monday at Mike Rowe and Sons [construction].

“There’s only [sons] Tommy, Benji and me and we had a lot of stuff to do,” said Mike Rowe.

He did come home from work at 2:30 p.m. and took a long nap.

After Sunday’s race, several drivers said it was very difficult to pass at Oxford Plains Speedway during the Oxford 250 because it has become a one-groove race track courtesy of a repaving project completed in October 2002.

“There’s no outside groove on this track. It doesn’t make for good racing. It’s a survival race right now,” said Scarborough’s Kelly Moore. “They’ve got to do something to get an outside groove here. Seal it, repave it. It’s really bad right now.”

“There’s no outside groove here whatsoever,” agreed Fort Fairfield native Kirk Thibeau.

But Rowe doesn’t want to hear it. He started 37th after winning the hooligan race. The previous record for lowest start for an Oxford 250 winner was 26th.

Rowe had started 26th in 1997 and Tommy Ellis had done likewise in 1983.

Rowe’s other trip to Victory Lane came in 1984 when he started 10th.

“You’ve got to adjust to the track, not moan about it. It can be done. You’ve just got to know when to do it. You can’t do it first thing. You’ve got to wait until later when cars start getting loose and pushing,” said Rowe. “We could run the outside. I said that right along. You’ve got to tiptoe around.”

He knew in order for him to win his 150th career race at OPS, he had to bide his time until the later stages of the race.

“I knew we had a good car but we were going to have to be patient all day and take what the car gave me. I just rode a lot. I was on the outside a lot but I didn’t want to blister the right front tire [so I’d run the inside],” said Rowe who cranked it up over the last 25 laps and took the lead from Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark on lap 240.

Rowe knew he was going to have to make a late-race pit stop and he made a four-tire stop on lap 191 that proved to make the difference. Runnerup Clark ran the final 170 laps on the same set of tires.

Rowe lauded crew chief Seth Holbrook and the crew.

“We got wrecked in the heat race but the crew never gave up. They kept plugging,” said Rowe.

Rowe said he dedicated the race to the late Leland Kangas. Kangas, who raced at Oxford Plains Speedway in the 1970s and 1980s, died in a motorcycle accident exactly one year from Sunday.

“He was a good friend,” said Rowe.

So what is he going to do with his $26,000 winners share?

“Put it right back into the cars,” said Rowe who also credited Norridgewock’s Jeff Taylor, owner of Distance Racing Products in Fairfield, with providing him with an exceptional 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo.

By winning, Rowe has earned a defending champ’s provisional for next year’s race. And he would never miss an Oxford 250.

“We love it,” said Rowe who is third in points in the Pro All-Stars Series, 16 points behind son and leader Ben Rowe.

He has two wins and five top-threes in 10 PASS races entering Saturday’s Summerfest 150 at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H.