WISCASSET, Maine – Robert Green finally took the time to smile in victory lane on Sunday night at Wiscasset Raceway.

"It makes me real happy because I built it, and it’s just a wicked nice car," said Green,, crew chief for Johnny Clark, winner of the New England Toyota Tundra 250.

Green spent the better part of the season building a brand new car for Clark to debut at Wiscasset, but the plan didn’t quite go according to plan. They tried to bring the car, with a brand new engine, too, to the track for a 125-lap race in June – but the engine blew in practice and put the project on hold.

Saturday morning the team set fast time in the first practice for the weekend, but then got progressively slower as the track collected more rubber. That led Clark to start thinking about bringing back the team’s old car – which, not coincidentally, won four of its last six starts at Wiscasset.

"Johnny thought about giving up on it Saturday night," Green said. "I said there was no way the other car would be any better... This is new. It’s got the latest and greatest stuff on it. Everything is brand new, and it’s so much nicer to work with."

Clark said he wasn’t as serious about going back to old faithful as Green thought.

"It was mentioned, but I thought we were just joking," Clark said. "I mean, we were just joking but only because the other car had been so good."

For Green, who led Clark’s win in the Peterbilt 250 at New Brunswick International Speedway last season, the Toyota Tundra 250 win was the biggest of his career.

"By far," he said. "By far. The Peterbilt 250 was nice, but this here is our home, so it’s a little better."

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One of the surprises of the night had to be the third-place run by Steve Knowlton, of Ipswich, Mass., who qualified out of the first heat race for a fourth-place start.

But not everybody thought Knowlton was a feel-good story. Local competitor Matt Lee had his day essentially ended by Knowlton in qualifying – when Knowlton’s No. 10 made contact with then-leader Randy Turner, setting off a wild frontstretch wreck that involved all four of the leaders.

"It (expletive) sucks. The PASS drivers – I don’t know who drives that No. 10, but they’re supposed to be the professionals. What the (expletive)? We’re already qualified. There’s no need to drive like that."

Clark, who went on to win the main event, also wasn’t pleased with the way Knowlton drove when he took the lead from him on lap 112.

"Race people how they race you," Clark said. "Steve used me up pretty bad on the restart. There isn’t anybody on this tour that races like that. That’s old school, and he races how he races. I say, ‘Race people how they race you,’ but that’s not true, either, because I gave (Knowlton) plenty of room out there."

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Fred Astle Jr. was in that opening heat race – which took more than 25 minutes to complete – and played the role of survivor to win the pole for the inaugural Toyota Tundra 250.

The current Super Late Model points leader at both Seekonk Speedway and Thompson International Speedway, Astle said fellow Massachusetts native Rick Martin warned him the heat races could be hotly contested. Astle, of North Westport, tried frantically to build a new car for the race but opted to go with his old one instead.

"(Martin) told me you don’t want to bring that (new) car there the first day, and he was right," Astle said. "Actually, it was about getting in the race today. And once we got in the back of the pack, it was about getting to fourth. And then when it all came unglued at the front, it was the Astle family glue that stuck together."

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For PASS North frontrunnerx Ben Rowe and Cassius Clark, Sunday was on long day.

After an overnight engine change, Clark’s car was terrible in qualifying – finishing dead last in his heat race. Rowe was caught in an accident off of the track’s fourth turn that left his team making repairs for most of the rest of the day.

Clark won the last-chance race, but a broken ball joint in the feature ended his night before the halfway point; Rowe used a PASS provisional to start at the back of the pack but a flat tire prior to lap 200 lost him five laps.

Clark finished 27^th, while Rowe was 18^th.

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Camping World East Series driver Eddie MacDonald didn’t had a long day. He started 24^th and finished only 22^nd in the Toyota Tundra 250 – after a sleepless couple of days for his crew. The team blew an engine at Lime Rock Park on Friday, worked all night to replace it in time to race the Connecticut road course on Saturday, then worked all night Saturday to get the Super Late Model ready for Wiscasset... Ted Christopher of Plainville, Conn., the winningest driver in Stafford Motor Speedway history, failed to qualify in a car owned by Rick Martin. ... Stan Meserve’s return to Maine was a short one, as he hit the turn one wall a quarter of the way through the feature and finished 32^nd... Officially, 48 cars attempted to qualify on Sunday, with only one driver from PASS South (2^nd-place Corey Williams, the series points leader and a Maine native) and only one Canadian driver – other than PASS regular John Flemming – making the trip to Wiscasset. Marty Prevost was given a provisional starting spot and finished 36th.