WISCASSET — Mike Hopkins of Hermon had something to prove Sunday night at Wiscasset Speedway.

Hopkins hadn’t won all season and saw what he thought was his best chance disappear when Garrett Hall stormed past him less than 30 laps from the finish.

But when the caution came out for the final time, five laps from the end, it gave Hopkins the shot he craved.

Hopkins squeezed under Hall with less than two laps remaining and drove off to win the Boss Hogg 150, his first win in the event and first win of what has been a long two years.

“It’s awesome,” said Hopkins, who earned $5,000. “Just the adversity I’ve been through in the last two years in my life, jumping from what I’ve always raced, to this with a whole new group of guys. I’m just glad I pulled through. I wasn’t going to quit on them. I was going to wreck or I was going to win.”

Hall, of Scarborough, finished second with Dave Farrington Jr. of Jay third. Kevin Douglass of Sidney and Scott Chubbuck of Bowdoin, a five-time Wiscasset track champion, completed the top five.

They were the only cars left on the lead lap in a race marred by two red flags totaling 38 minutes, nine cautions and just 11 cars running at the end from a 31-car starting field.

Hopkins dominated most of the race, leading more than 100 laps after taking over the top just 17 laps in. He survived the carnage – the first 19 laps took more than an hour – and pulled away on restart after restart.

But Hall was finally able to reel him in after pitting for a handling adjustment on Lap 90, rolling through what was a thinned-out field to drive around Hopkins on the outside on Lap 121.

Hall wasn’t sure he had enough car to win at the time. But he was still disappointed when Hopkins passed.

“The car was wicked loose. We brought it in and adjusted a little bit,” said Hall, who won the the Boss Hogg 150 in 2017 before being disqualified in the postrace technical inspection for a tire infraction. “I didn’t think it was capable of winning, but I think I would have been able to pull it off. But things didn’t fall out, I guess.”

Ironically it was Travis Benjamin, who prepares Hopkins’ car, who gave Hopkins the shot at winning after challenging Hall unsuccessfully for several laps. Benjamin’s car stopped on the front stretch on Lap 145, setting up the final restart.

Hall leaned on Hopkins with two laps remaining after driving too deep into the first corner of the .333-mile track.

“I think I could have held him, but I think I drove it down into that corner a little too hard and it was a little too early,” Hall said.

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