Hate to do it, but just some basics; Please acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.
Please talk smack, we encourage healthy debate! BUT, You also must agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. You know the difference...
We hate spam as much as you do, but we also encourage advertisng by drivers, and teams, as well as other racing news and information websites. Feel free to place a link and/or banner in your signature or send your artwork/links to us for placement at adv@makinglaps.com.
Post anonymously or register, but only members will win random prizes periodically. We are pleased to have a great library of animated avatars, members may send a brief request of what they would like their avatar to be by emailing the bratmaster38@aol.com.
Now with all that out of the way.....Let's make some laps!
DOVER, Del. -- Two weeks ago, Matt Kobyluck hoped to play the role of spoiler to Joey Loganos dominating championship season. But since reaching a shot at the series title, Kobyluck has had nothing but bad luck.
After racing up to second behind then-leader Joey Logano, Kobyluck got taken out of the Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway under caution. The team attempted to repair the damage to the #40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet, but had to retire from the event with only 116 laps complete. His 21st place finish moved him to fourth in the points as the series concluded its regular season.
The car was really, really good, said Kobyluck. Its disheartening for the guys and its disheartening for me because we put so much into it. The last two races have ended this way. When youre running in the top-three or the top-five youre supposed to feel as if youre in pretty good company and that you are able to race and have fun out there. You dont expect to get wrecked by a veteran and you dont expect to get wrecked under caution. Its discouraging, but the flipside of that is, weve had great performances. These are just circumstances out of our control.
The demanding nature of Dovers high-banked, high speed surface sent the team thrashing to make changes to the Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet after practice despite being one of the ten fastest cars of the day.
You cant say, well, the car is good enough. It has to be the best. Being one of the top-10 in practice isnt good enough. You have to have a car that is going to be as good on lap one as it is on lap 150, said Kobyluck.
The team made the right call, and as soon as the green dropped on the Sunoco 150, Kobyluck knew he was going to have a car to contend with. By lap 48, Kobyluck had come from a 13th starting position to fifth. He maintained that position before pitting during a lap 55 caution period.
Kobyluck re-entered the race in ninth and worked his way up to second by lap 92, but trouble was just around the corner. A caution flew on lap 94 when the 99 of Bryon Chew blew a tire and hit the wall in turn four. The third place car of Jesus Hernandez didnt realize the caution was out and never reduced his speed coming out of turn two. By the time he saw Kobyluck, who had dropped to a caution pace, it was too late. He had run right into the back of the Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet.
The caution had been out for a good quarter of a lap and it appears his spotter didnt tell him the caution was out or anything. We took the caution when we went underneath the start/finish line and he wrecked me in turn two. To get wrecked under caution is one of the stupidest things that could happen on the racetrack, said Kobyluck.
Kobyluck brought his machine onto pit road and the crew frantically went to work on banging out the damaged sheet metal. They also changed right side tires and a left side tire that had been damaged in the wreck. They went several laps down in the pits, but were hoping to complete the race. By lap 116, it became apparent to the team that they werent going to get all the damage fixed by the race conclusion and pulled the car behind the wall.
At a place like this where your speeds are so high you do rely heavily on your spotter. (Jesus) came over afterwards and told me his spotter never told him the caution was out, and that he never even saw me in turn two because the sun was real bad. He said as soon as he could see he drove right into me. It was unfortunate to end our day that way, he concluded.
__________________
NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.