Kobyluck Finishes 40th After NASCAR Parks Team at NHIS

NASCAR parked Matt Kobyluck following an accident at lap 68 of the Busch East Series, Grand National Division’s New Hampshire 125 at New Hampshire International Speedway Saturday afternoon and summoned the driver to the trailer for an accident he believed was unfairly labeled as retaliation for earlier contact with Sean Caisse. Kobyluck finished the day out with a 40th place finish.

“We were going down the backstretch, and apparently someone checked up in front of him, he checked up, and I drove into the back of him. I got underneath him. I got on the brakes, but obviously, it wasn’t soon enough,” the Mohegan Sun Casino driver said. “NASCAR viewed it as rough riding.”

Kobyluck, who was using the new spec engine, was well on his way to a career-best finish at the ‘Magic Mile’. Kobyluck was third by lap seven and up to second by lap 15. The driver pitted at lap 20 with a majority of the lead lap cars and worked his way back up from the tail of the field to the top-five by lap 46 despite more than half the race being run under caution.

Kobyluck's #40 goes for a spin at New Hampshire. (Hodge Photos)

On lap 50, everything took a turn for the worse, however, when driving into turn three, he and Caisse made contact.

“I guess the 44 was driving beyond the talent that he possesses. I don’t know what he was doing. He was driving down into turn three, and he drove in there deeper than he should have, and drove into my left rear,” he said.

Kobyluck’s day didn’t get any easier. As he came up through the field, Kobyluck made contact with the 00 car of Danny Sammons on the backstretch. NASCAR viewed it as deliberate and sent the Mohegan Sun Chevrolet to the rear of the field for rough riding.

“I had no reason to spin out the 00. I was coming up through traffic, and he got tight in the middle of one and two. I went to go around him and he blocked me at the bottom so I went to the high side. When I did that, he went up too and ended up blocking me again. We ended up making contact and he ended up spinning.”

Kobyluck was still determined. After pitting, he went to the rear of the field again, but this time, Caisse, whom he made contact with earlier in the race, was also there after unrelated contact up front. Because of an on-going rivalry between the two drivers, NASCAR viewed the ensuing contact at lap 68 as intentional and parked the car for the

remainder of the race. Caisse’s team was visibly upset, and one of the team members approached the Mohegan Sun Casino crew waving a baseball bat.

“We’ll see what happens from that. When a crew chief of another team comes into the pit area of another competitor and waving a baseball bat at them, you have to assume that something – some kind of penalty -- is going to happen. It was on TV!” Kobyluck said. “Sean Caisse is a victim of his own circumstance. There’s much bigger things in my life to worry about than Sean Caisse out on the racetrack. If I wanted to park him I’d park him the first lap of the race. It doesn’t take any talent to take someone out and it takes all the fun out of racing for me. I do this because I love to do it, I love the sport, and I love being able to be able to compete. You could take racing out of my life right now and I’d be just as happy that way, but I do it because I can and I can compete at the level that we are. It doesn’t have any bearing on me what Sean Caisse does.”

Kobyluck pits his Mohegan Sun Chevrolet.