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DOUG COBY
PRIMED TO CHASE CHECKERED FLAG
IN CALL BEFORE YOU DIG 150 AT STAFFORD SPEEDWAY |
 In
what has been a hotly contested championship fight
during the first half of the 2015 NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour season, defending series champion Doug
Coby is primed to kick off the second half of the
year in the Call Before You Dig 150 at his home
track of Stafford Motor Speedway.
Coby has been among the championship contenders all
season long following his season opening victory at
Thompson, but a mid-race crash at New Hampshire two
weeks ago left the #2 Dunleavy Truck & Trailer
Repair team facing a hole to climb out of to get
back into championship contention. Coby and the #2
team did just that at the next series race at
Monadnock, scoring the win and leading the most laps
for a max points day. Coby now heads to Stafford for
the Call Before You Dig 150 looking to pick up
another win at a track where he has recorded 6 of
his 15 career NWMT victories.
“I have a lot of confidence heading to Stafford
because I really thought we were going to win the
125-lapper,” said Coby. “The caution came at the
wrong time for us during that race. If it had stayed
green, I think we were going to pass Ryan [Preece]
and drive away and go win the race. When the caution
came out we all pitted and I had to deal with coming
back through traffic and then we got the penalty for
over aggressive driving. We have a really good long
run car and if we can have a 40 or 50 lap run at the
end of the race, that would be a good scenario for
us.”
After the Riverhead race at the end of June, Coby
was tied with Preece for the NWMT points lead. His
misfortune at New Hampshire dropped him back to
fourth in the standings and 25 points out of the
lead. Coby’s win at Monadnock vaulted him back up to
third in the standings and only 15 points behind
Woody Pitkat as the Tour heads to Stafford and he is
feeling confident about his chances of being a
championship contender during the final 7 races the
season.
“I don’t know if Monadnock was a statement, I think
we just showed that we’re not going to go away
easy,” said Coby. “I think that race made more of a
statement about our short track program. The quarter
mile tracks are not necessarily tracks that I’m used
to having success at and this year I finished third
at Riverhead and we won and Monadnock. I think we’re
showing that we’re rounding out our program with a
car that runs well at every track that we go to on
the schedule. I feel confident that we have a car
that can win the last 7 races of the year and our
goal is to get max points at every race we go to. I
don’t think anybody is truly thinking about points
right now. We’re all trying to position ourselves
where we need to be and you only start to really
think about points with 3 or 4 races to go.”
Coming off of a championship effort that saw Coby
and the #2 team win once and finish in the top-10 in
12 of 13 races, the team made the decision to change
their chassis program over to LFR Chassis. Coby says
that the switch, although maybe a bit
unconventional, has spurred the team to new heights.
“Qualifying has picked up a ton for us this year,”
said Coby. “We have 3 poles and 2 outside poles in 8
races so we’ve been on the front row for 5 of 8
races. That’s a huge thing for our series, you
usually have a better chance of finishing up front
when you start up front. We made the change to
improve our program and other than 2 bad finishes
where I think we were running well enough that we
could have won both of those races, I can’t really
complain with how the season has gone for us.”
With Coby, Preece, Pitkat, and Todd Szegedy only
separated by a total of 17 points in the 2015
championship chase, Coby says to stay tuned because
the championship race should be tight all the way
down to the last race of the season.
“All four of us are good at the remaining tracks,
Stafford, Thompson, Loudon, Bristol, and Riverhead,”
said Coby. “With 7 races left, I think that you
could probably make a case for each of us to be the
favorites at 2 races each and it should be a great
race. We’re only halfway through the year and
there’s a lot of racing left for crazy things to
happen. I’m very happy we’re still in contention and
hopefully we don’t’ have any more mishaps like we
had at Loudon.”
Tickets for the August 7th Call Before You Dig 150
are on sale now and 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 is $35.00 for all ages and all
ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford
Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking along
with overnight parking available for self-contained
Recreational Vehicles.
For more information, 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:
July 29, 2015 |
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