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05/03/2012 |
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DOUG COBY
SWEATS OUT SUBWAY WRAPPER EN ROUTE TO VICTORY LANE
IN CARQUEST TECH-NET SPRING SIZZLER AT STAFFORD |
 For
Doug Coby and the #52 Reynolds Auto Wrecking /
Furnace and Duct team, the 41st Annual CARQUEST
Tech-Net Spring Sizzler was a dream race. Coby took
over the race lead from Ryan Preece on lap-112 of
200 and he led the rest of the way, beating Preece
to the checkered flag by 1.881 seconds. But as calm
and smooth as Coby’s ride looked from the outside,
Coby and his team were worried for much of the
second half of the race that the car might not make
it to the finish. Coby’s car picked up a Subway
wrapper in his grill area and it shot his water
temperature to the virtual point of breaking, but
the engine held together and Coby was able to take
home his second career Sizzler trophy. Coby’s
Sizzler trophy will be joined by another trophy, the
Subway wrapper that hitched a ride with Coby for
most of the second half of the CARQUEST Tech-Net
Spring Sizzler.
“We had a Subway wrapper on the grill and it shot
the water temp up from 200 or 210 to 240, and 240 is
when you pull in,” said Coby. “We were actually
debating on one of those cautions with 48 to go to
come into the pits and pull the wrapper off the
grill. It stayed at 240 and then went to 230 and 236
and my crew chief [John McKenna] told me there was a
light in there that is gonna tell me and if the
light comes on I’ve got to pull in. It never came on
and I don’t think I would have told him if it did
come on. It was just one of those things that
someone got a sandwich from Subway and it almost
ruined our race. You’ve seen it happen with Dale Sr.
I think at Daytona where he got a wrapper on his
grill and it happened to a modified at Stafford
Speedway and it almost ruined our day, it was that
close. It was after the pitstop so it must have been
around lap-110 or lap-120 and my car owner [Wayne
Darling] sits in the stands and he came on the radio
and told me there was a big piece of debris on the
grill and to check my water temp.
It was fine for a while then I saw it go from 200 to
220 and that’s ok, and then it went to 230 and I
said that wrapper is going to ruin our freaking
race. It got to 240 and that’s when I started to
panic and I turned it over to my crew chief and I
said you tell me when to pull in. I’ve run motors
before at 250 and 255 and I’ve blown them up after
that. This was a fresh Bob Bruneau motor that we
just got back, this is my favorite motor that we won
Thompson with and we didn’t have it for the
Icebreaker because he had a problem with it on the
dyno. I like this motor, its very comfortable to me
at both Stafford and Thompson, and it’s a very big
thing to have done this for the team. The wrapper is
in my helmet and its going on the wall. It ran about
240 for most of the race, it went down to 230 a
couple of times.
I pulled up to the pace car under caution because
I’ve seen Cup guys when they have debris change the
airflow and sometimes it will drop, but the cup guys
don’t have a big box like we have and I think it was
just stuck in there.”
Coby qualified 7th and he spent the first half of
the race working his way towards the front and he
was up to second when most of the lead cars came to
pit road under caution on lap-97. He came out third
of the cars that pitted and he was sixth in line for
the lap-109 restart. It took Coby only three laps to
run down and pass Ryan Preece for the race lead and
once Coby got out front, he remained there for the
remainder of the race, although he and the team were
worried about the wrapper on his grill.
“This means a lot, its huge,” said Coby. “It was
huge the first time and its even bigger this time.
This is now 2 wins in the last handful of modified
races and we have something really good with this
team when the car is on. The car was very much on
after the pitstop. It was on before the pitstop, but
Ryan was way better on the long run before the
pitstop, but afterwards the car never changed. The
car felt the same at lap 200 as it did right after
the pitstop at lap 100, they just made the right
changes.
It was easier to drive, I don’t want to say it was
easy to win because this is a very difficult race to
win. They work so hard and their attitudes are
phenomenal and they’re the type of people that you
just want to be around good days or bad days so it
makes the good days even better. We had a plan on
when we wanted to pit and we actually missed the pit
window we wanted to go to because of the cautions so
we knew everyone would come in right around 100 with
us. My guys get knocked sometimes for not having
good pit stops and we came in second and we went out
third, so they deserve a pat on the back for having
a solid stop and getting me out without a lot of
traffic to contend with. We tightened it up just a
tad, I pushed hard on the first set of tires to see
how the car would race on the second set of tires.
The car was a little free and then it came to me, so
I told them just a little tiny adjustment, the car
wasn’t bad. Track position is everything here so
that’s why I pushed Ryan on the restart, I didn’t
want him to get into a comfort zone with his car. I
told my spotter Brian to let me know when it looked
like Ryan was starting to push it so I could pick it
up and make him go even harder. It was about 30 to
go when he told me I literally just got into a zone
like at Seekonk last year and hit the same line
every lap, the car didn’t change once from lap 103
to lap 200. It was absolutely amazing.”
Coby will hope to make it two in a row at Stafford
when the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns on May
25th for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125.
Tickets for the 22nd Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125
are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box
Office. Tickets are priced at $33.00 for adult
general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages
6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted
free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
Reserved seating will be priced at $35.00 for all
ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission
Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free
parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the 22nd Annual TSI
Harley-Davidson 125, or to order
tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track
office at 860-684-2783 or
visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com. |
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Source: Scott Running / Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted: May
3, 2012 |
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