Matt Kobyluck Races To Second Place Finish At Thompson
Mohegan Sun Casino driver Matt Kobyluck tried everything he could to get by Sean Caisse in Saturday night’s Pepsi Racing 100 at Thompson International Speedway, but the NASCAR Busch East Series driver couldn’t impede Caisse’s dominance and happily settled for a second place finish. Kobyluck used two final restarts that extended the event to 108 laps to try and knock Caisse from the point while holding off Mike Olsen for second.
“I figured I’d give it everything I could on those last couple of restarts to get in front of him and make him have to get back by me. At least I might steal a win or something. You never know what happens: a guy could get loose in, check up, they could slip up, whatever. I was just giving it everything I had and giving him a run for his money. To come out of here second, I’m real proud of the guys and real happy with that finish,” he said after the race.
Despite being among the top 10 fastest cars in the first practice session, Kobyluck wasn’t thrilled with how the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet felt. The team went to work quickly to make adjustments that would
make Kobyluck more comfortable, and was again the sixth fastest car in the second round of practice. He qualified 12th fastest after turning a lap of 20.598 seconds (109.234 mph) in qualifying, but felt very confident for the race.
“We have a lot of track time here at Thompson and we knew what to expect once the sun went down,” Kobyluck explained. “We had the car set up for the race and not for qualifying. We weren’t worried at all after qualifying 12th.”
Kobyluck made it up to eighth by the time the race reached lap 17, but a spin by the 4 and 83 cars caused a huge pile-up in turns one and two on lap 19. Kobyluck dove down low and avoided any contact from the carnage that unraveled right in front of him.
Racing resumed at lap 24 with Kobyluck in sixth, but again an accident would slow the pace. Kobyluck maneuvered his way around the melee once again and lined up second for the restart at lap 33.
Matt talks with Mike Olsen after the race at Thompson. (Howie Hodge photos)
From the drop of the green, Kobyluck had Mike Olsen’s bumper in his rear view mirror. The two battled tail-to-tail for much of the remaining laps.
“Mike (Olsen) ran behind us the whole night, and he ran me real clean. I would have ran him the same way if I was behind him. He didn’t use me up. That showed me a lot of respect, and when the opportunity presents itself, I’ll do the same for him. He needed to run the line that I was running, and he was probably a little faster than I was, but wasn’t fast enough to drop underneath me and get by me.”
The #40 at speed at Thompson.
A caution tightened the field up for a restart at lap 92 and Kobyluck felt this was his chance. He drove past Caisse by a nose on the restart and the duo remained side-by-side throughout the remainder of the circuit. Caisse reclaimed the lead before caution waved again for a spin in turn four.
The restart on lap 100 was scheduled to be a two lap dash to the checkers, but again a spin in turn two brought out the caution. Kobyluck thought he had one more chance, but again, Caisse closed the door on his challenges and drove ahead to the checkers.
“We didn’t have a race winning car. Sean clearly had the race winning car, but I figured we might squeeze one out of him there in the end. The caution came out after we took the white so I really didn’t get a full shot, but he clearly had the fastest car,” said Kobyluck.
The Busch East Series will return to action next weekend when they make their debut at Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tenn. on Sunday, July 22nd.
