Coby Recovers From Penalty For Third Consecutive Thompson Win 8-12-15

Posted by Wayne G. Barber &Photos Wayne G. Barber Collection

It was round three for the NASCAR Whelen Modifed Tour at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Wednesday, August 12th as the tour made its penultimate appearance of 2015 at the historic venue for the Bud “King of Beers” 150, the tenth race in the fifteen-race season for the tour.

Defending series champion Doug Coby was riding a wave of momentum into the race with wins in the first two events at the track this season. Points leader Ryan Preece, who claimed his first win at Thompson in the series during last year’s World Series weekend, looked to continue his own momentum riding a slim four point lead over Woody Pitkat in the series points standings into the night.

Coby would pace the field in the early portion of the race, taking the lead fifteen laps into the event and not relinquishing it until pitting after the caution came out on lap 85. Chase Dowling would inherit the front spot to lead his first ever laps in the series after avoiding pit road, but would lose the lead on the restart after Coby and Ted Christopher, who came off pit road first and second respectively, made quick work of Dowling on the restart. Coby, however, was black flagged for jumping the restart, sending him down pit road for a penalty and giving Christopher the lead when the caution flag waved again on lap 95.

That would not be the end of the drama for the night. While Christopher would go on to lead a handful of laps he would find himself turned in turn four after contact with second place Woody Pitkat, bringing out the caution and giving Pitkat the lead.

Some questioned why Pitkat was not black flagged for wrecking the leader as it was officially deemed a racing incident, and after the race he commented on the incident and said it was pure hard racing. “Obviously NASCAR and the tour is not here every week to see his line. He has that weird line where it’s actually on the bottom and then he lets it roll off into the center in the middle and drive off and make the straightaway as long as he can,” he said. “It works for him, that’s his line, but when his entry is on the bottom and you enter on the top and try to get that run and turn the center and try to get that run underneath him you get that run off the corner and drag race off the straightaway now your entry is on the bottom. He takes that away from you. So what are you going to do? When you get a run and he tries to chop you, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Pitkat would hold the lead while Coby aggressively worked his way to the top five, which put him in perfect position for a dramatic finish after another caution set up a restart with less than ten laps to go. Cody took advantage of a great restart, pushing Pitkat to the front but getting him loose and taking the lead all within a lap. Coby would run away with the lead pulling off a sweep of the first three races of the season at Thompson, a feat last accomplished in 1998, and claiming an unlikely victory in the face of adversity.

Pitkat held on for a second place finish and took over the series points lead. After the race he said he was frustrated with the contact between himself and Coby that resulted in Coby taking the lead and the win. “If it stayed green there I didn’t think he had something for us. Then we got going and he gave me a good push down the front straightaway,” said Pitkat. “I cleared Todd (Szegedy), but I don’t know where (Coby) came from. I don’t know how he got that run off of two to be able to go underneath me. If he was that fast he should have been able to pass me clean is what I think. He just sailed down into turn three and used me as the wall to turn his car. I don’t think he even turned his car. He used me and drove off – We’ll just put that in the memory bank and move on and remember that when we’re racing him.”

Coby said he did not regret his move to win the race and called it hard racing for a win he felt he deserved despite the penalty. “You know what I got knocked around by everybody at Stafford and we had to battle back and finished second. Woody was the only car that I touched tonight and I wasn’t going to lose. That’s how it works. We had the fastest car. They knew we had the fastest car so they can be as upset as they want but we’re fired up and ready to go,” Said Coby.

He also commented on the black flag situation and felt it was questionable at best. “I couldn’t have given the lead back because (Dowling) was eighth in one lap so I don’t understand. Usually when we’re all racing the second place guy gets a jump and the first place guy is within striking distance so you just roll out of the gas. It kind of seemed like it took them three or four laps to decide what they wanted to do and I was cleared by five at that point. I don’t know what I could have done. I don’t really care at this point because we still won, but it’s just so questionable,” he said.

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Points	B/Points	Status
1	2	2	Doug Coby	Dunleavy's Repair/A&J Romano Const. Chevrolet	150	48	5	Running
2	11	88	Woody Pitkat	Buzz Chew Chevrolet/Elbow East Chevrolet	150	43	1	Running
3	9	4	Todd Szegedy	Montanari Fuel Dodge	150	41		Running
4	13	58	Eric Goodale	GAF Roofing/Supreme Skylights Chevrolet	150	40		Running
5	4	8	Donny Lia	Sypher Construction/Bardahl Chevrolet	150	40	1	Running
6	7	6	Ryan Preece	TS Haulers/East West Marine Chevrolet	150	38		Running
7	1	7	Patrick Emerling	Buffalo Auto Auction Chevrolet	150	38	1	Running
8	20	51	Justin Bonsignore	M3 Technology Chevrolet	150	36		Running
9	3	22	Ted Christopher	Canto Paving/Ferguson Waterworks Chevrolet	150	36	1	Running
10	8	16	Timmy Solomito	Diversified Metals/R.B. Enterprises Ford	150	34		Running
11	6	9	Chase Dowling *	S&S Asphalt Paving/Dunleavy's Repair Chevrolet	150	34	1	Running
12	17	31	Steve Masse *	El Gee Products Chevrolet	150	32		Running
13	18	13	Andy Seuss	J&R Pre-Cast/Cape Cod Aggregates Chevrolet	150	31		Running
14	5	3	Derek Ramstrom *	Cape Cod Copper/DCU Chevrolet	150	30		Running
15	23	89	Matt Swanson *	Spafco Race Chassis/FMR Racing Chevrolet	150	29		Running
16	19	79	Troy Talman *	Hillbilly Racing/Coors 21 Means 21 Chevrolet	150	28		Running
17	25	14	Max Zachem *	Trowbridge Transport/Dunleavy's Chevrolet	150	27		Running
18	21	56	Craig Lutz *	Lutz Motorsports Chevrolet	150	26		Running
19	16	93	Rowan Pennink	Van Wickle Auto Supply Chevrolet	150	25		Running
20	24	99	Jamie Tomaino	Dunleavy's Repair/Atlantic Sprinkler Chevrolet	150	24		Running
21	27	18	Ken Heagy	Buoy One Seafood Chevrolet	149	23		Running
22	22	46	Jeff Goodale *	Riverhead Building Supply Chevrolet	148	22		Running
23	15	44	Bobby Santos	Tinio Corp./Dan Kelley/Curb Records Chevrolet	148	21		Running
24	29	33	Wade Cole	Performance Engines/Kendall Oil Chevrolet	148	20		Running
25	28	26	Gary McDonald	Lakeland Landscape/TRC Electric Chevrolet	146	19		Running
26	14	36	Dave Sapienza *	Frankie's Towing/Wine Country Chevrolet	141	18		Transmission
27	12	15	Ron Silk	15-40 Connection/LFR Chassis Chevrolet	136	17		Suspension
28	10	75	Shawn Solomito	Eastport Feeds/Axel Anderson Inc. Chevrolet	96	16		Power Steering
29	30	1	Melissa Fifield	Big Moose RV Chevrolet	58	15		Handling
30	26	37	Dave Salzarulo	Brickenmore Bricks Chevrolet	39	14		Accident