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DOUG COBY
HOPEFUL FOR ANOTHER
STAFFORD VICTORY IN NAPA FALL FINAL |
With
8 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victories at Stafford
Speedway since 2012, Doug Coby and the #2 Mayhew
Tools team have become synonymous with success at
the Connecticut half-mile facility. Coby has
continued his good fortunes at Stafford with second
place finishes in both the NAPA Spring Sizzler® in
April and the Stafford 150 in August. While the 2017
season didn’t get off to the best of starts for Coby
and the #2 team they find themselves leading the
points standings coming to Stafford for the first
time this season and what better track for Coby to
try to extend his point lead than Stafford.
“This year has been a weird season,” said Coby. “We
haven’t won as much as we have in the past couple
years but we’ve had some really consistent finishes.
We’re coming off a 14th place finish at Loudon,
which was pretty disappointing. We led most of the
race and then kind of got knocked around at the end.
We’re coming to Stafford hoping to win and at the
very least hoping to extend the point lead heading
into Thompson in a couple of weeks. We’re excited
it’s Stafford and we’ve been so good there the last
4 years or so. It’s a great spot for us to come back
to having just got the point lead. I’d like to say I
like our chances but I liked our chances last week
at Loudon and everywhere else we’ve gone this year.
It really hasn’t been our year to go out and
dominate with wins like we have in the past. I
wouldn’t be surprised if we went out and had a good
run, led a lot of laps and won, or if Ryan or
someone else wins the race. Anything can happen and
I’m just hoping to get out of Stafford with the
point lead and go to Thompson with another shot at
winning the championship.”
Coby began the 2017 season with 3 finishes of 13th
or worse in the first 4 events and he was 51 points
out of the lead after the Langley race. From there,
Coby and the #2 team have slowly but steadily
climbed their way back into championship contention
with a 6-race string that saw them post a win, 4
second place finishes, and a fourth. Coby says that
this streak has him and the team hungry for a win at
Stafford in the NAPA Fall Final.
“We didn’t change anything on the car, we just went
out and got the finishes that we deserved,” said
Coby. “If we had won a couple of those races we’d be
in an even better spot than we are now. We have all
those second place finishes and I think that’s just
made us more hungry for a win at the Fall Final.
We’ve finished second behind Ryan [Preece] twice at
Stafford this year and we’re looking forward to
getting back into victory lane if we can. I’m
counting on him being near the front of the field
again this Sunday. Luckily for us [Preece] had a
bigger opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing and he’s
missed a couple of races and if not for that, I
think he’d probably have a pretty handy point lead
right now.”
Coby has qualified first and second in the first two
Stafford races this season and another solid
qualifying effort will be a big help towards winning
the race on Sunday or at the very least maintaining
the point lead. Coby has gone from the hunter to the
hunted as the NWMT comes to Stafford with Justin
Bonsignore, Timmy Solomito, Rowan Pennink, and
Preece all within 26 points of Coby.
“I’m not as worried about qualifying as much as I
have been in the past,” said Coby. “It seems like we
haven’t been able to qualify as well as we have the
past couple years. We’ve been around 4th to 8th in
qualifying a lot of times this season but I’d love
to qualify up front because it seems like the race
always goes smoother for us when we start up front.
I think if we finished second behind Ryan again,
that would be a better scenario for us rather than
Justin, Timmy, or Rowan winning the race.”
Should Coby and the #2 team go on to win an
unprecedented fourth consecutive NWMT championship
this season, Coby says it would be a little bit
sweeter this season with the adversity they’ve had
to overcome.
“It’s been such a crazy season and I think a lot of
people wrote us off in the beginning of the year
with the finishes we had,” said Coby. “We’ve
scratched and clawed to get ourselves back into
contention so I think a championship this year would
be a little more special just with how rough the
season started off for us. When you start off in a
hole and you have to dig out of the hole, with this
points system we have it’s not the easiest thing to
do so it would be pretty neat to grab another
championship.”
The 2017 NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Weekend gets
underway on Saturday, September 30th with practice
sessions for Stafford’s Whelen All-American Series
divisions, Mr. Rooter Truck Series, and the Whelen
Modified Tour. Action continues with Coors Light
Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified Tour cars,
along with heat and consolation races for all
divisions with feature events for the SK Light,
Limited Late Model, DARE Stock, and Mr. Rooter Truck
Series divisions wrapping up Saturday’s on track
activities. The NAPA Fall Final continues on Sunday,
October 1st with the NAPA Auto Parts Pit Party from
11am-12noon followed by a number retirement ceremony
for Ted Christopher and pre-race activities before
Stafford’s SK Modifieds® and Late Models take to the
track along with the Whelen Modified Tour in feature
action starting at 1pm.
Discount tickets for the NAPA Fall Final Weekend are
available at your local participating NAPA Auto
Parts Store. The NAPA tickets include general
admission for both days along with a lunch buffet on
Sunday, all for only $38 per person. For a list of
participating NAPA Stores, please click the
PARTICIPATING NAPA STORES link found at the top of
the
www.staffordspeedway.com
homepage.
Tickets for the NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Weekend
are available and on sale now at the Speedway Box
Office. Tickets are priced at $40.00 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 $42.00 for all
ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission
Tax.
For more information on the 45th Annual NAPA Auto
Parts Fall Final, 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:
September 28, 2017 |
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