Coby Piloting MSR No. 2 in Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair 100
WATERFORD, CT — Two-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby is entered in today’s Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair 100 sporting the colors of event sponsor Doug Dunleavy. The $5,000 to win event has 40 Modifieds in attendance.
“We’re excited that he did this,” Coby said. “It’s awesome to have another good paying open show and we’re happy to support his race with his team and hopefully come out of here with a good finish. I think we got a winning car, but we’ll just have to see how that goes.”
The Milford, CT driver has wins at the historic 1/3-mile oval in SK Modifieds, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, and the Valenti Modified Racing Series. Coby won his first NEMA race at New London-Waterford yesterday in the Bertrand No. 74.
Coby is 26 points behind points leader Ryan Preece entering the F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The team will use a brand new LFR Chassis after the car used for Loudon was wrecked at Bristol last month.
“It’s just one of those deals where everything’s gotta go your way. I think we’ll be fast, but, I mean, I screwed up last time spun the tires on the restart and got wrecked. So it could happen again, but we’ll be fast. It’s a fun place to go and obviously that’s where we want to really would love to win there this year. So they’re putting in (a) big effort to get the new car ready and see how it goes.”
Coby is tied with Preece at four wins through 12 races this season. 12 of Coby’s 14 wins have come at the remaining three tracks: New Hampshire, Stafford, and Thompson.
“I think we can win all three races. As far as points go, it’s really in Ryan (Preece) and Woody’s (Pitkat) hands with how they do. If they keep doing what they’ve been doing, then we’re going to finish out of the money here. But all we’re looking at right now is just go out there and try and win three races and if they have problems they have problems. If they don’t they don’t, I mean, that’s all you can do at this point. The Bristol and London wrecks really killed us, so it is what it is. You can’t change it, so we’ll just do what we can do and try and win.”
The team began the season with a pair of changes to their operation. The team changed their Troyer Chassis for the new LFR Chassis and from open to spec engines. Three poles, a 3.3 average start, and 594 laps led this season are career bests for Coby.
“We’ve been fast everywhere we’ve gone. Short tracks picked up our program from last year on the short tracks so that’s great and certainly didn’t fall off at all from the other tracks that we were so good at. So I think it was a smart move and looks like it’s paid off.
“Just kind of fell short on the consistency side of things this year with a couple of bad finishes and that’s pretty much. A lot of that’s my fault and just making a mistake and that’s what happens. It rarely happens. I guess it seems like the last three to four years I’ve been lucky and been able to correct my mistakes, but couldn’t hide them this year and just screwed up a couple of times.”
We were informed on Friday that Seekonk (MA) Speedway has secured a sponsor for a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race next season. The Route 6 track rejoined the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series this season. The series has visited the 1/3-mile oval six times (1987, 2000-05). NEAR Hall of Famer Reggie Ruggiero won the inaugural race and Eric Beers won the most recent race.
Coby’s best finish in 2 starts was fifth in 2005. Plenty has changed for Coby in the 10 years since. He has two wins at the Cement Palace, the 2011 Open Wheel Wednesday in a Modified and the 2013 Boston Louie Memorial Classic in a NEMA Midget. Coby has won 14 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races and two championships.
“I used to hate Seekonk and now I pretty much love racing there. It’s a track that you really have to know what you’re doing. You really have to know what that racetrack wants out of a Modified and I feel like I’ve kind of fine-tuned that a little bit, so I think it would be awesome. The more tracks we go to the better the series will be.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com
Racing-Reference.info
SpeedbowlHistory.org