Kobyluck Chases Engine Problems At NHIS
Matt Kobyluck was one of the busiest drivers in the New Hampshire International Speedway garage area Friday afternoon. Pulling double duty in both the NASCAR Busch East and NASCAR Busch Series’, Kobyluck didn’t have much free time on his hands. Despite his hectic schedule, he had hoped his hard work and diligence would pay off with big dividends.
Fate, it seemed, had other plans for the Uncasville, Connecticut driver.
Kobyluck, who piloted his No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet to a speed of 122.355 mph (31.129 seconds) in Busch East Series qualifying, was confident for a solid top-five finish in the New England 125. After 35 laps, however, all that came crashing down when a lifter in the engine broke and forced the team behind the wall.
“It was disappointing,” admitted Kobyluck, who
was also wrestling with a broken rocker arm in the Busch Series car earlier that day. “There was no warning, no signs that the engine was going to have a problem. We were just out there running our own race, and pacing ourselves for the end.”
Kobyluck started the race ninth and broke the top-five by the time caution waved at lap 19. The team came down for a quick gas-and-go stop during the break and lined up 15th for the restart at lap 21.
“My guys did an excellent job getting me in and out during the pit stop,” said Kobyluck. “When we pitted we were running fifth. When we went back out, we had actually gained a spot by being the fourth car out.”
But when the race went back to green, it was evident that Kobyluck didn’t have the horsepower as those he was running with before. By lap 33, Kobyluck was back on pit road and the team was looking under the hood. Kobyluck rejoined the field before going a lap down, but pitted again as the team assessed the problem. Crew chief Perry Waite instructed Kobyluck to park it at lap 35 when the broken lifter was found.
“We took a big hit in the points today, there’s no doubt about that,” said Kobyluck. “I don’t know what it is about this place (NHIS), but it has a hex on us for some reason. We’re solid contenders everywhere else we go, but once we get here we struggle. I can’t explain it.”
The New England 200 didn’t have much better results.
Kobyluck was forced to park his No. 04 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet after only 36 laps of the Busch Series race on Saturday. The engine problem, this time, was anticipated. As mentioned previously, the team found a problem with the rocker arm on Friday afternoon, however, NASCAR rules only allowed them to change the malfunctioned part rather than the entire engine.
“It was a catastrophic failure during the race. It’s really unfortunate -- this whole NASCAR rule with not being able to change the engine when you have a part failure. Usually when something breaks there are other problems underlying that you can’t see. I couldn’t afford to have them confiscate a $50,000 engine so I had to go along with the rule and just replace the rocker arm. I knew starting that race that I could be done 10 or 50 laps into it,” explained Kobyluck.
“I was really proud of my entire crew,” he continued. “Everyone worked extremely hard trying to make the best of this weekend. They didn’t have a minute of downtime, and they worked as hard on Saturday as they did when they got to the track on Thursday. It was a tough weekend, but we’ll move on and get past it.”
