Late Race Tangle Relegates Kobyluck To 11th Place Finish

Loudon, N.H. (June 27, 2009): Matt Kobyluck was poised for a podium finish in Friday night’s Heluva Good! Summer 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but a late race restart at lap 110 proved costly for the driver of the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet and the team ended the night with an eleventh place finish. The trouble happened in a battle with Steve Park that resulted in contact on the backstretch.

“The 9 car spun his tires and he didn’t go on that restart. I had to slow up for that and a bunch of cars went by me. We came out of turn two and the 35 came up in front of me. The 29 went to go under the 35 and got in the back of him, which got Park out into the fence. That’s when I got into the back of him,” explained Kobyluck.

Kobyluck started the Camping World Series East race from the seventh position and became a factor in the top four as early as lap 20. He got shuffled back to eighth in lapped traffic before the first caution of the night flew at lap 39.

Kobyluck followed the leaders onto pit road for fuel and returned to the track in fifth place for the restart at lap 46. Eventual race winner Matt DiBenedetto went by Kobyluck for fifth on the restart, but Kobyluck reclaimed his place in the top-five in a battle with Alan Tardiff just two laps later.

Kobyluck pitted for fresh tires at lap 65 and restarted the race at lap 68 in the eighth position. In just a single lap, Kobyluck gained three positions but caution would quickly slow his progress on lap 69.

The race resumed at lap 73 with Kobyluck in fifth with an intense battle to settle the top-five at the drop of the green. Kobyluck battled with Ryan Truex, but soon found himself in a tight door-to-door battle with Ryan Gifford. At lap 77, when the caution came out, Kobyluck had advanced to fourth.

On the restart, Kobyluck found himself in a three wide battle with Ryan Truex and Steve Park. Kobyluck emerged the third place driver and was closing in on the second place car of Kevin Swindell. At lap 100, Kobyluck was challenged again by Truex and was relegated to the fourth spot before caution came out at lap 105.

Following the contact with Steve Park, Kobyluck dropped back to 18th and was forced to pit on the next caution at lap 115.

“I did a bunch of right front damage to the car and the tire was rubbing so bad it would have blew out the tire and wrecked the car,” said Kobyluck. “We got what we could get after that.”

Kobyluck rallied in the closing laps of the race to finish 11th.