Third Place Finish Gets NHMS Monkey Off Kobyluck's Back
Loudon, NH (June 28, 2008): For years, Matt Kobyluck has struggled with New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Since 2003, the Mohegan Sun Casino race team has posted only a single top-10 finish despite having a solid, competitive car at every event. Bad luck was the culprit. Friday night, Kobyluck changed all that when he posted a third place finish in the Heluva Good Summer 125 – his first top three since 2002. Kobyluck's finish catapulted the Uncasville, Conn. driver to second in the NASCAR Camping World Series East point standings.
"I would have liked to get a victory here, and with 10 to go, I thought we had a car good enough to do it," said Kobyluck. "For me, to come out of here, New Hampshire, with a top-three, is a huge day for us. The car literally has barely a scratch on it, and it was a good points day. I'm really excited about that."
Austin Dillon and Kobyluck paced the field to green after rain lined the field up by points, but it was all Kobyluck out front after taking the lead coming out of turn two. Dillon remained a threat, however, just a short carlength behind.
As soon as lap two, Dillon turned up the heat and began looking for a way around the Mohegan Sun Casino driver. On lap 10, Dillon drove to the low side coming out of two, got side-by-side with Kobyluck heading into turn three, but couldn't complete the pass and settled back into second.
The first caution flew for the first time with 22 laps complete. Austin Dillon led a procession into the pits when pit road opened. Kobyluck elected to stay out and chance that the race would not make it to the end.
"Our strategy at first was just not to pit. We thought we'd run out of daylight before they got the whole race in," admitted Kobyluck. "As the laps ticked off, we knew we had to change our strategy."
Kobyluck led until lap 35 when a caution sent him down pit road for fuel. He returned to the track in the 14th spot. By the time the race hit the halfway mark, Kobyluck was back in the top-10 and moving forward.
At a restart on lap 101, Kobyluck was fourth behind Brian Ickler, Jesus Hernandez, and Brad Leighton. Leighton took the lead, but spun after contact with Ickler. Ickler was sent to the rear of the field, and Kobyluck was placed on the outside front row for the restart at lap 106. Like earlier in the race, Kobyluck used that outside groove to his advantage and took the lead from Trevor Bayne. Caution tightened it up once again on lap 108.
"When we went back to green, I needed three or four laps to get heat back in the tires. I had old tires that were wore out so it took a little bit to get back going. I was a sitting duck at that point," said Kobyluck.
Racing resumed on lap 117 and both Eddie MacDonald in the 71 and Trevor Bayne in the 1 car challenged. It was three wide heading into the turns. The action got heated and Kobyluck settled into third. As MacDonald and Bayne battled it out, Kobyluck patiently awaited for a chance to capitalize.
"Once they got by me, I could hang right with them. They were battling and I didn't want to make it a three-way battle. I figured if something happened I'd be right there to capitalize on it. They did a crossover a couple of times, and one time, I had my nose right in there so I had to back out of it to not wreck all of us," he said.
One final restart extended the race to 127 laps to allow for a green-white-checker finish with Kobyluck finishing third.
"My guys did a great job today," said Kobyluck. "I didn't have anything for them on that last restart - not with them both having fresher tires. It feels good to leave here with a car in one piece and second in the points. This is almost like a win to us."
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