Black Flag Robs Kobyluck Of Adirondack Victory

Matt Kobyluck was well on his way to winning The Edge 150 at Adirondack Speedway Saturday night, but a black flag following a lap 141 restart derailed the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet resulting in an 11th place finish. Kobyluck was penalized for apparently jumping the restart despite being the leader of the race.

“I was in disbelief. I couldn’t believe they were black-flagging me. I couldn’t believe they were even considering issuing a penalty,” Kobyluck said. “This is completely out of the ordinary and it’s discouraging. The event was manipulated and it put a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. This, by far, takes the cake as the most unjust penalty I have ever been issued.”

Kobyluck started the race on the outside front row after rain showers earlier in the day forced NASCAR officials to cancel qualifying and line the field up by points. At the drop of the green, Kobyluck wheeled to the front and led the first six circuits before yielding to Mike Olsen in the 61 car.

Mike got by me and I wasn’t going to press the envelope at that point,” Kobyluck said. “I knew we had a good car and I wasn’t really worried about it. I was just focusing on hitting my marks and keeping consistent laps. I knew if we did that, we’d be back out front soon enough.”

And he was right. Kobyluck reclaimed the lead on a lap 20 restart and pulled away by almost a full straightaway at times. During a lap 76 restart, Kobyluck let Caisse out front for a single lap, but reclaimed the lead on lap 77 only to pull away by a commanding lead once again.

“We were running the same laps at lap 125 that we were on lap 15. It’s a great feeling that 80 percent of the way through the race it’s running the same. You know you have a real balanced car at that point,” said Kobyluck.

NASCAR first approached Kobyluck’s crew chief, Perry Waite, after the restart to let the team know of their displeasure with the procedure. They told Kobyluck to give Chew the spot back. Kobyluck let off the throttle and let Chew get up alongside of the Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet. Still, Kobyluck was black-flagged on lap 142 and honored the penalty at lap 144. With only a few laps remaining, there was no possible way for Kobyluck to charge back to the front.

“At that point, it was just pass as many cars as I could in the two or three laps that were remaining and try to salvage what you can. I was dealt a bad hand and I had to work with it,” he said.

The Uncasville, CT-native, however, was none too happy following the race.

“On every other restart, they praised the restarts the whole race long. All of a sudden out of the blue, they go 100 percent the opposite direction. They believe I jumped the restart by two carlengths and that was just cause for them to give us a stop and go penalty,” Kobyluck explained.

“We went to the NASCAR trailer after the race to talk about it, and they laughed at us throughout the whole meeting. That’s a slap in the face. Where’s the objectivity? We are supposed to be doing everything we can to attract fans, attract teams, and attract sponsors. Fans don’t want an event where the outcome is dictated by the tower rather than what is going on out on the racetrack. That didn’t happen tonight.”

Kobyluck maintained second in the points but fell 192 points behind current point leader Joey Logano.