Kobyluck Feels Redemption In Fourth Place Finish At Dover
Matt Kobyluck’s 40th place finish at New Hampshire International Speedway last week was one of the biggest disappointments of the season for the Mohegan Sun Casino race team. This week’s fourth place finish in the Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway gave the team a little bit of redemption and put thems back on track to conclude the Busch East Series, Grand National Division in winning style.
“This place is just fun. I love coming to Dover because it’s all-out racing every single lap, and at the end of the race you see who has what because some guys can last 20, 30, or 40 laps, but what team can last a whole 150 laps is what you see at the end of this race. We had a strong run, stayed out of trouble, and finished up front,” said Kobyluck. “We needed that.”
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have his share of close calls at the ‘Monster Mile’.
Kobyluck started the Sunoco 150 from the fifth position after posting a qualifying effort of 149.732 mph (24.043 seconds) Friday morning.
Kobyluck's #40 at Dover
By lap five, he was running third and setting his sights on Sean Caisse and Tim Andrews, who had pulled away to a commanding lead.
The field tightened up for a restart at lap 22 with Kobyluck still in third, but the 22 of John Freeman was able to use the bottom groove to get by Kobyluck and relegate the Mohegan Sun Casino to fourth.
Caution waved at lap 66 and set in a motion a round of pit stops by a majority of the lead lap cars. Kobyluck came in and avoided a near hit by the 33 of Tracy Gordon as he was exiting his pit stall. When all was said and done, Kobyluck was fifth for the restart at lap 74 behind Chew, who elected not to pit, Andrews, Freeman, and Ruben Pardo.
Andrews used the outside groove to drive by Chew for the lead with Freeman and Kobyluck following. Kobyluck was about to get his shot at the lead.
A caution tightened the field up for a restart at lap 102 with Kobyluck running second. Andrews and Kobyluck went side-by-side through one and two with Andrews only having a mere nose advantage coming out of two. Heading into turn three, Kobyluck had the advantage by a nose. The two continued to duel with Andrews settling out front for good in turn two of lap 103.
The following circuit, Freeman got ahead of Kobyluck, got out of shape and spun right in front of the Mohegan Sun Chevrolet. Contact was
inevitable, and Kobyluck had to pit for repairs. The team was still optimistic for a solid run.
“I don’t know what the 22 did or what happened, but I was still on the outside of him and he just went up,” said Kobyluck. “I think after our last adjustment there we had a good shot at the win.”
The race resumed at lap 113 with Kobyluck 12th, and by lap 130, the Uncasville, CT-driver had made it back into the top-five. The race was extended to 157 laps when two laps before its scheduled conclusion an accident occurred that brought out the red flag. Kobyluck gave it one last shot, and was only able to make it up to fourth before the checkers dropped.
“We could have had something at the end there if the aerodynamics of my car was in a little better shape,” Kobyluck said. “We had a good car, we just got tangled up in that little mess, which took us out of contention for a win. We still got a top-five out of it so we’re happy with that.”
Kobyluck pits for the #40 team to attend to front end damage on the Mohegan Sun Chevrolet.
