NOTEBOOK: Thompson Finally Pays Off
Pennink Scores First World Series Win, Coby Battles Back
THOMPSON, Conn. – It had been a long time coming for Rowan Pennink, both on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and at Thompson Speedway, in particular.
Down to a relatively bare bones operation within his family-owned team, Pennink finally had all the right pieces in place to win the season-ending Sunoco World Series 150 presented by Xtra Mart at Thompson on Sunday afternoon. The victory snapped a 48-race winless streak for Pennink on the Tour and was his first career win at Thompson.
“Aside from winning at Loudon or maybe Bristol, this place has been one of my tracks,” Pennink said. “We’ve been so close to winning here, but we couldn’t just catch the right breaks. They all fell right today.”
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[October 19] by Paul Fohlin
[October 20] by Paul Fohlin
In the season opener at Thompson last year, Pennink crossed under the checkered flag first but was penalized for jumping the race’s final restart and placed 10th in the finishing order. Just two months ago, Pennink was challenging for the lead in the Budweiser 150 when he was caught up in a nasty wreck that saw his day end with his No. 93 on its roof.
There were countless other days at Thompson – over the course of his previous 26 career starts at the .625-mile banked oval, he had seen victory slip away in a number of excruciatingly disappointing ways.
Not Sunday.
“I’d say this place owes me one, or maybe even two,” Pennink said. “We’ve had such good cars here before in the past. We’ve been leading by half a straightaway with 10 to go and there’s a spin out (to bring out a caution), or the race I ‘won’ and got put to the back for beating Ronnie (Silk) to the line. That’s one where we were like, ‘We did it!’ but we didn’t.
“Especially doing it here this weekend is awesome. The World Series is probably my favorite weekend of the whole season.”
Pennink entered the weekend, in which he also celebrated his first career championship in another Tour-type Modified division on Saturday, not knowing what he’d have underneath him. In the end, what he brought to the track worked just perfectly.
“For the past couple races, we’ve only had one car,” the Huntingdon Valley, Pa., driver said. “We flipped that one here – and that one’s wrecked and gone, and the other one got wrecked pretty bad up at Loudon (in September). We’re down to this one last car, and we had a couple of motor issues with a couple of our motors, and we’re almost down to our last motor to run.
“I guess it was the right combination.”
Pennink’s last Whelen Modified Tour win came at Riverhead Raceway in 2010.
COBY BATTLES TO FINISH: Just 10 laps into the Sunoco World Series 150, Doug Coby’s already slim hopes for repeating as Whelen Modified Tour champion narrowed significantly as he spun the No. 52 heading into Turn 1 and lightly tapped the wall.
He lost a lap after pulling up in line to pit for repairs too early, and spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to salvage what he could.
“Our day was kind of like our season,” Coby said. “I got in someone’s oil or something. I thought the right rear tire went down, because I was spinning out on (corner) entry. I don’t know if the 73 was leaking and I hit the wrong spot for where my entry was. I spun out and got all leaves in the grill. The car ran hot, and I thought we were going to have to park it, but the caution came out at just the right time.
“We battled back, and then we had to play strategy. We were in the back, were were a lap down, we had to wait to get the Lucky Dog, and we had to try and battle back from all of that.”
He did just that, finishing eighth. Ryan Preece finished third to lock up his first career Tour championship, 32 points ahead of Coby. But Coby never surrendered, not until he saw the checkered flag in the air.
“I was looking forward to having a good car, running up front and ending the season on a high note today,” Coby said. “The team is really happy because we just kept battling, and really, that’s what I’ve said about this team all along. You never want to give up, because you never know what’s going to happen. You never know when something bad is going to happen (to someone else).
“Everybody starts nerfing each other at the end – I nerfed some guys, I got nerfed by some guys. All I know is, if something had happened to Ryan with one or two to go, it was still possible for him to finish 20th or something like that. I know I was only eighth, but cautions breed cautions. You’ve just got to keep going until the checkered flag flies. A couple more cautions, and you never know, because everybody goes nuts at the end.”
Coby finished in the top five in the final standings for the third consecutive season.
ROOKIE RUN: Max Zachem made his Whelen Modified Tour debut a memorable one, finishing sixth in the Sunoco World Series 150.
Zachem ran as a teammate to series veteran Todd Szegedy, who finished ninth to give Mike Smeriglio Racing’s team two cars in the top 10.
“Awesome car. The car was good right off the truck,” Zachem said. “I can’t thank Mike Smeriglio, (Szegedy crew chief) Phil Moran and the entire crew enough. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here racing. When you’re in a great establishment like MSIII and you run up front, it just shows that the whole package was there.”
Zachem, who has made starts at Thompson in other Modified divisions, said the weekend went as good as he hoped – and finishing in the top 10 was the thing that stood out the most.
“I’ve been in a Tour-type Modified up here (at Thompson) for a couple of years, and Phil and I have worked together with my car,” Zachem said. “The setup was pretty familiar to me. I just had to get used to things like the seat and the brakes – going to a different car, there’s always different things to get used to, but I can’t thank my guys enough.”
Sources: Travis Barrett, Special to NASCARHomeTracks.com