Kobyluck Avoids Trouble, Picks Up Win In Mohegan Sun 200

Matt Kobyluck had a dominant car in the Mohegan Sun 200 at Lime Rock Park Saturday afternoon, but trouble on the last lap almost cost him the victory.

Almost.

Kobyluck wrestled his #40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet out of the grass and to the checkers after hitting a patch of oil in the final turn of the final lap to pick up his second win of the 2007 NASCAR Busch East Series, Grand National Division season Saturday afternoon. The victory was in front of a cheering Mohegan Sun crowd, the title sponsor of the race.

"When we hit the oil, I thought my day was done. There was no way around it and we were carrying so much speed that we were going to slide no matter what we did,” Kobyluck said. “I got off course, and somehow saved it from spinning out. My elbow hit the kill-switch and killed the ignition. I was hitting the ignition, I was hitting the throttle, but I couldn’t tell if it was running. Finally I got it going, grabbed a gear, and took off."

Kobyluck earned the Busch Pole Award and led the first 18 laps of the race before entering pit road for a scheduled pit stop. By the time the pit stop cycles had concluded, Kobyluck was back in second behind Maxime Dumarey. However, Dumarey’s car lost power on the frontstretch at lap 35 and Kobyluck once again took command.

During a caution period leading up to a lap 59 restart, Mike Olsen’s crew had asked the team to pick up the pace on the restarts.

“I figured yeah, if it helps out Mike, I’ll give it a whirl. They must have had a higher first gear than me. In order to pick up the pace I had to start in second gear, but I wanted to help Mike out so we did it. Mike and the 44 blew past me,” he said.

Kobyluck lost three spots, and Olsen, who had taken over the lead from Sean Caisse on lap 61 had pulled away to a commanding two second advantage. Kobyluck kept plugging away at closing the gap, but a caution came out and tightened the field back up.

Matt leads Mike Olsen at LRP.  (Howie Hodge Photo)

On the green, Olsen held off Kobyluck, but two circuits later, Kobyluck outbraked Olsen into turn one and reclaimed the top spot. From there, he concentrated on racing the racetrack. Until the racetrack nearly took him out. It was the final lap in turn seven that Kobyluck hit the oil.

"This is big! When you win one road course race it’s great to put it on your resume. To win another one really solidifies yourself as a legitimate road racer. To do it with Mohegan Sun Casino as the sponsor of the race, to do it after what happened a couple of weeks ago at Adirondack, and to do it and have a great points day is just awesome,” he concluded.