Bad Luck Streak Continues For Kobyluck At Iowa

Matt Kobyluck and his Mohegan Sun Casino Warriors just can’t seem to catch a break.

Since the season opener at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Kobyluck has wrestled with just finishing a race let alone finishing in the top-five. His luck wasn’t any different in the NASCAR Grand National Division’s Featherlite Coaches 200 at Iowa Speedway Sunday afternoon. Kobyluck wrecked at lap 113 of the speedway’s inaugural event, which drew a crowd of over 24,000 people. The team was unable to continue and had to call it a day with a 36th place finish.

“It was driver error,” the 37-year-old admitted. “We had such a good car, and I took away a top-five finish for us. I think we actually had a car good enough to compete for the win there at the end. With the adjustment we made at the pit stop and how it responded once we put fresh tires on – the thing was just incredible.”

Kobyluck started the race 21st after a qualifying effort of 24.209 seconds (130.117 mph). Iowa Speedway, a banked 7/8th’s mile tri-oval was just to Kobyluck’s liking. He could pass on the inside and outside grooves, and proved it as he began his way to the front. He opted not to pit with a majority of the field at lap 81 and gained even more track position. On a lap 85 restart, Kobyluck was running sixth. The team came in for fuel, tires, and an adjustment on lap 102.

  Kobyluck was running 20th when the race resumed at lap 105. Caution slowed his pace at lap 106, and again, racing resumed at lap 111 with Kobyluck already having gained two spots. With a momentum behind him, Kobyluck was ready to move forward, but instead his race day came to a complete halt.

“I followed the 29 down in to the corner and he got by the guy he was on the side of. He went down and I went to the outside of him thinking I was just going to the outside groove,” Kobyluck explained. “But there was actually another car down below him. I ended up making it three-wide, got into the loose stuff up above, and lost it.”

Kobyluck’s wrecked car had to be towed off the track.

“It tore up the front clip. We’ll get it back to the shop and tear the front clip down, repair the body, get a new body hung. The unfortunate part is that my mistake cost Mike Olsen a top-ten or top-five finish as well. Not only did I hurt myself, but I hurt someone else unnecessarily. I get really upset about things like that. I don’t generally do things like that, but when I do, it’s not very acceptable to me. For me, I take a lot of pride that I make good decisions out there, and I didn’t make a good one today. It cost us a lot of points. We’ll get back after it at South Boston and see if we can make some ground on it there.”

Matt hoped to turn his early-season struggles around at Iowa.