LOUDON, N.H. – Tracy Gordon’s frustration came to an end Saturday afternoon.

The 36-year-old Strong native’s first-ever win at New Hampshire International Speedway and first Busch North series win since the 2001 BNS opener at Lee, N.H., wasn’t without controversy, however.

On a lap 120 restart in the New Hampshire 125, Matt Kobyluck sped from sixth place into the lead while hugging the outside wall, angering several drivers including Gordon and second-place Andy Santerre of Cherryfield. They felt he jumped the gun.

When Dennis Demers spun and wrecked, it brought out another caution which resulted in a green-white-checkered (two-lap) finish after the track was cleared. NASCAR officials replayed the questionable restart during the delay and allowed Kobyluck to begin the next restart with the lead.

On that restart, Kobyluck tried to block Gordon, but Gordon slipped to the inside of him. Kobyluck continued to try to block him by sliding down the track, but Gordon kept his line and hit the back left panel of Kobyluck’s car which spun the leader out of contention.

The caution flag came out and Kobyluck was shuffled to the back of the lead lap.

Gordon held off Santerre on the race’s final restart to take the checkered flag by .157 seconds over points leader Santerre. Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H., was third with Scarborough’s Kelly Moore, the pole sitter, and Mike Olsen of North Haverhill, N.H., rounding out the top five. Leighton was gunning for his fourth straight NHIS win.

The other Maine driver to finish in the top 10 was Turner’s Mike Rowe, who finished seventh after starting 13th.

“This was a great win. I wanted this so bad. New Hampshire International Speedway owed me one for all the bad luck we’ve had here,” said Gordon. He was running third with two laps to go a couple of years ago only to blow a tire and was fourth with three laps to go earlier this season when he hit the wall.

As for his fender-bender with Kobyluck, Gordon said, “I probably should have given him a lift [off the accelerator to let Kobyluck move in ahead of me]. But I was upset when he took the lead the way he did. He’s running for the points championship and shouldn’t be driving the way he was. That was a disgrace.”

Gordon added, “He should have known I wasn’t going to give him a lift because my car was dominant all day. He was trying to protect the bottom of the track and came down on me.”

Did the incident taint the win for Gordon?

“You think Jeff Gordon didn’t think that was a good win at Bristol a few weeks ago,” quipped Tracy Gordon, whose Busch North win was the 12th of his career.

Gordon said he had determined on the restart that he was going to try to claim the inside groove based on watching Santerre maneuver around the track.

“I watched Andy’s [racing] line and tried to pick his line up because he always runs well here,” said Gordon.

Santerre said he thought he had passed Gordon before the yellow caution light came on after Gordon and Kobyluck swapped paint and should have begun the final restart in the lead.

In the Busch North series, unlike Winston Cup, they don’t race back to the starting line on a caution. They start where they were when the caution light or flag is shown.

“Tracy got a little messed up when he and Kobyluck got into each other and I passed him,” said Santerre. “I passed him before Kobyluck hit the wall [which caused the caution].”

Gordon disagreed, saying, “I lifted as soon as the light came on and then Andy passed me.”

Lee Roy, director of Busch North Racing, said Gordon was leading when the ruling for the yellow flag was made.

“As soon as they say the word ‘put’ [up the flag]” Gordon was still leading Santerre, Roy said, explaining that is what determines the position of the cars.

Gordon gave a lot of credit to his crew, whom he sent back to Maine to get another engine after he blew his engine in practice Thursday morning. He took the old engine out and when they arrived with the new engine, they squeezed it into the car.

“That engine wasn’t supposed to be in that car. We had to shoehorn it in. We worked until 3 in the morning. And the crew never complained or moaned. We had another engine on hand, but if we had used it, we wouldn’t have had a very good car,” said Gordon.

Kobyluck, who finished ninth, told reporters Gordon caused the accident and should have been penalized. He also said he did nothing wrong on the restart when he took the lead.

“Matt preaches respect [among drivers]. He gives a lot of respect and gets a lot of respect. But that wasn’t one of his better moves,” said Moore. “The cars are so equal. There’s no way he could have outfoxed five guys on the restart [without jumping the gun]. He may outfox one. He may have outfoxed me. But not five.”

Santerre had mixed emotions about the race.

“Tracy had a great race car and deserved to win. He is underfinanced just like I am and goes out here and busts his butt every day,” said Santerre. “He had never won here and I’m glad to see him win.

“But I’m really upset with the officiating. The first deal was allowing the 40 car [Kobyluck] to pass [on the restart]. That was discouraging. Another time, when I was leading the race, they put two lapped cars in front of me, side-by-side, on the restart. The lapped cars are supposed to line up one-by-one on the inside groove. That cost me five or six spots,” said Santerre, who got tangled up in the lapped traffic.

Santerre said he had a “great car” and was pleased to extend his points lead and take home a second “in front of so many of my friends, family, and sponsors.”

“It was really a good race. It was pretty exciting out there,” said Santerre.