Kobyluck Leads At Dover Before
Accident Relegates Team To 23rd Place Finish
Dover, DE (September 27, 2010): Matt Kobyluck led two laps of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season finale at Dover International Speedway Friday evening before hitting the wall and prematurely ending his day. The No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet lost a right front tire before the contact was made. They were credited with a 23rd place finish in the race and a tenth place finish in the final point standings.
“We’re a better team than (10th). What it boils down to is that we needed to be more competitive at a lot of the events,” said Kobyluck. “Obviously, finishing tenth in the points is very unsettling for me and very disappointing.”
Kobyluck was confident for the Sunoco 150 after two practice sessions on Thursday afternoon put them among the top-10 fastest cars of the day. He backed that up with a qualifying effort of 150.238 mph (23.962 seconds) to earn a ninth place starting position.
Kobyluck showed the patience of a true veteran in the early laps of the race and moved up to seventh by lap 35. The leaders pitted as the race nearly reached its halfway mark where the Mohegan Sun Casino race team used pit strategy to pay big dividends on the track. Taking on fuel only, Kobyluck moved into second for the restart. From there, he wheeled the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet in front of Danica Patrick to take the lead. He led for two laps before blowing the right front tire.
“We weren’t ready for tires yet so we came in only for fuel. We took the lead over from Danica and a lap later we were in the wall. (Danica) drove into the side of me a couple of times, but that didn’t cause us to blow the tire.”
The Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet had a bent front clip, bent upper control arm, and the brake rotor broke from the impact. The damage was too extensive to continue in the race.
“The unfortunate part is that Goodyear couldn’t bring a tire to the track that would last more than 65 laps. It blew out because it wore out. We shouldn’t be running on a tire that will blow out that quick. In years past we were able to run until lap 90 before pitting for tires,” Kobyluck said.
The Sunoco 150 will air on SPEED Thursday, October 7 at 6 p.m. ET.
For more information on Matt Kobyluck or Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino, visit www.mattkobyluck.com.