Kobyluck Charges To 5th Place Finish In Backup Car

Jefferson, Ga. (August 30, 2010): Matt Kobyluck posted a top-five finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut at Gresham Motorsports Park this past weekend, and catapulted the Mohegan Sun Casino race team into sixth place in the points with only two races remaining in the season. Kobyluck began the weekend with a wrecked car after a flat tire sent him into the turn three wall during practice and forced the team to go to a backup car.

“This finish feels like a win,” admitted Kobyluck. “Considering the circumstances, yeah, I’m happy. We destroyed our primary car in the last five minutes of practice, pulled out our backup car and started dead last only to finish fifth – I can’t find much complaining in that.”

The first practice session left Kobyluck feeling extremely confident for the American Fence Association 150 at Gresham Motorsports Park. They were just about to park the car in preparation for qualifying when the tire on the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet blew and sent him into the wall. The damage forced the team to pull out the backup car, and use his time trial laps as a mini practice session for the race.

“I came into turn three, picked up some debris on the track, blew out the right front tire and hit the wall. We had a really good car after working on it all day. From that point, we had to start from scratch. The car seemed to be okay (during qualifying) and there wasn’t any adjustments that we could make on pit road. We would have liked to have change the left front spring, but that really wasn’t an option during the race. We were stuck with what we had.”

Despite having no practice, Kobyluck was able to post a lap of 17.608 seconds (102.226 mph) – the 17th fastest time of the day. NASCAR rules, however, mandated that Kobyluck drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race giving him a 25th place starting position.

Determined, Kobyluck quietly moved his way up through the field and broke into the top-10 by the halfway mark. The second half of the race, however, was marred by cautions and three red flag periods that made any advancement difficult. Still, Kobyluck persevered, and on each green flag run, Kobyluck made forward progress through the field. He took the checkers with an impressive fifth place finish.

“We were in the right place at the right time. I was in the outside lane and that seemed to be the preferred lane. We were better than some of those guys, but just by a little bit. Everyone was so equal it was tough to pass. The drivers that were out front weren’t racing smart and we capitalized on it. They were wrecking each other instead of racing.”

The next event on tap for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will be the New Hampshire 125 at New Hampshire Motors Speedway on Friday, Sept. 17. The American Fence Association 150 from Gresham Motorsports Park will air on SPEED on Thursday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. ET.

For more information on Matt Kobyluck, Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort, or the Mohegan Sun race team, visit www.mattkobyluck.com.