Kobyluck Finishes 12th At The ‘Magic Mile’
Loudon, N.H. (June 26, 2010): After starting 22nd in the field for the New England 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Matt Kobyluck had nowhere to go but forward. After 20 laps, Kobyluck had picked off ten positions in the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet and looked to be a solid contender for a top-five finish. However, a long green flag run changed everything and Kobyluck had to settle with a 12th place finish.
“We were really, really free,” explained Kobyluck. “The car was rotating really good through the center of the corner but I could not even breathe on the gas coming up off so that hurt us. I’d get into the corner really good and just watch everyone drive away from me. We were going to pit early to try and fix that, but we said ‘nah, we’ll just wait until our fuel stop’, but that never came because we ran until lap 80 or something until the caution came out.”
The Mohegan Sun race team never found the right tire combination for qualifying, and posted a lap of 31.099 seconds to earn the 22nd place starting position. Rules stated that teams could not work on their car post qualifying so they anticipated pitting early to adjust on the car. Before lap 10, Kobyluck had worked his way up to 16th and by lap 17, when the second caution flag flew, he was 13th. The race resumed at lap 21 with Kobyluck moving up to 12th. The race stayed green for the next 60 laps.
“The car tightened up a bit the more we ran and the more we burned off some fuel,” he said. “But it was still really free. I just drove it like that because we had good track position and there was no reason to pit under green.”
Kobyluck brought the Mohegan Sun Chevrolet down pit road multiple times for adjustments, fuel, and tires.
“We kept coming in to make adjustments and it didn’t fix it so we’d come back in,” said Kobyluck. “We’re investigating it now and we found something wrong with the left front spring.”
Kobyluck maintained his position for the remainder of the 125 lap race to conclude the event with a 12th place finish. The K&N Pro Series East race can be viewed on SPEED this Thursday, July 1 at 6 p.m.
Kobyluck returns to action next Saturday, July 3 at Lime Rock Park.
“We’ll keep doing what we know to do and go to Lime Rock and try to get a win there!” Kobyluck concluded.
For more information on Matt Kobyluck or Mohegan Sun Casino, visit www.mattkobyluck.com.