WISCASSET — Nick Jenkins had a feeling, even as he was standing in the track’s victory lane answering questions about just having finished second in the Boss Hogg 150 at Wiscasset Speedway.

Turns out, Jenkins’ premonition was correct and the Brownville driver was credited with the victory early Sunday night after Scarborough’s Garrett Hall was stripped of his apparent win for the use of an unapproved tire during the event. Hall was disqualified, according to track promoter Ken Minott.

“It would have been nice to cross the line first, but we’ll take it,” said Jenkins, whose win was the first of his career in a 150-lap event. “A $5,000 check (for winning)? Yeah, we’re here.”

Hall, who led the final 40 laps following the last restart of the race on lap 111, pitted on lap 94 for two right side tires. As he was battling his way back through the field after the pit stop, Hall was spun by Mike Hopkins while racing for fourth on lap 103 and cut his left rear tire.

He returned to pit road, where his crew put on one of its practice tires as a replacement — though that tire was not part of the six-tire inventory the team had selected for the race. All teams had six total race tires for the event, but any tire they changed during the race had to come from that six-tire inventory and nowhere else.

“We didn’t have a left side tire except for one that we’d been practicing on all day that we bought (at the track),” Hall said. “What else was I supposed to do, just park the car? We bought the tire (Sunday) morning and we ran 100 laps of practice on it. I thought there might be a little bit of lenience, I don’t know. I didn’t think that there would be a problem with it.”

Before being credited with the victory, Jenkins noted that his crew saw Hall’s team change three tires during the race. The win, in which Jenkins led just a single lap during the middle stages of the race, was a bit of vindication for a driver who had lost the Coastal 200 in 2015 at Wiscasset on a late restart.

“My crew told me,” Jenkins said. “They told me on the last restart, they told me ‘That guy took three tires, man, and we’re only allowed to take two. This race is yours, whether you finish first or second. This race is yours.'”

Cody Tribbet of Richmond was credited with second place for his best career finish in a Pro Stock. Wyatt Alexander of Ellsworth, who won the Boss Hogg two years ago, ended up third.

Hall was among the fastest cars in practice all morning at the speedway, won his heat race to start third in the 20-car field and was the only driver to lead more than 15 laps in the event.

Patience and pit strategy played a significant role in the race’s outcome, as cars inside the top five waged serious war on one another throughout the day to eliminate many early contenders. Early leader Daren Ripley of Thomaston, a previous winner of the event, spun by himself just 20 laps into the race and collected third-place runner John Peters of Westbrook. Twenty laps later, Hopkins spun out of second place while pressing Hall for the lead and clipping a lapped car. Hopkins later got into the back of Hall while racing for fourth on lap 103, and five-time track champion Scott Chubbuck was booted out of the lead by Jeff Burgess with 40 laps remaining.

“Those guys were sideways, battling, beating each others’ doors,” Jenkins said. “I guess that’s why I run 150-lap races. I was shocked when I saw somebody like Ripley wrecking. We just sat back in seventh or eighth place and saved my right side tires.”

All of the chaos only set the stage for Jenkins, who led the field to the lap 111 restart, and Hall. The restarts and off-sequence pit cycles it brought only played right into what seemed to be perfectly laid out strategies.

“It’s what we had planned,” said Jenkins, who pitted on lap 103 for fresh right-side tires. “We wanted to wait until 30 or 40 laps to go, and it worked out perfect for us. We thought when they all pitted at (lap) 90 that we were in pretty good shape.”

Hall motored quickly around the outside groove to take the lead for good on the final restart, and charges from cars deep in the top 10 never materialized as Burgess, Chubbuck and Alexander couldn’t make up enough ground to keep Hall in sight.

“I was a little bit nervous on the restart on the outside there. I wasn’t sure how hard (Jenkins) was going to drive it in. I tried to make sure I left plenty of room and got a really good run down the backstretch,” Hall said. “We run weekly at Beech Ridge, and we know how hard it is when the PASS tour comes. You’ve got to make adjustments to the car, because things are different when the fuel burns off.”

“I thought I had a pretty good shot at (Hall),” Jenkins said. “I just didn’t have enough forward bite. … This thing, the carburetor really stumbles on restarts and it killed me tonight. We’ll go home and take a look at it and get that fixed.”

Tribbet started eighth and finished second to earn the Hard Charger of the Race award. James Osmond, making his first start at Wiscasset since April, finished fourth, and Burgess rallied to be credited with fifth.

In support division racing, Tiger Colby of Wiscasset won the 30-lap Strictly Street feature over Zach Emerson of Durham and Jay Avery of Berwick. Colby became the first fourth-generation race winner in track history.

“It feels good,” said Colby, whose grandfather Charlie Colby is the track’s current Pro Stock point leader. “I’m getting pretty good, I guess.”

Corey Hall and Austin Teras each won one of the two NELCAR Legends 25-lap features.

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC

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