RGeeProductions
04-15-2008, 07:12 PM
Doug Coby and the Johnson Motorsports Xtra Mart/Village Springs SK Modified team set a new event record during qualifying at the Waterford Speedbowl’s season opening Budweiser Nationals, and then backed it up with a third place finish in the 150-lap feature event. This marks the second consecutive podium finish to start the 2008 season for the Johnson Motorsports team.
Coby’s Saturday qualifying time of 14.105 seconds was over a tenth of a second quicker than the previous event record set last year by Jimmy Blewett, and was just .04 seconds slower than the overall SK Modified track record held by Kenny Horton. It was Doug’s second career Pole Award, the first coming in 2004 at Wall Township Speedway in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competition.
“To be the fastest of the 34 cars that were there is a great accomplishment for our team,” said Doug, “People need to realize that this is probably one of the top two or three SK Modified fields ever assembled. Winning the pole was pretty special because a lot of guys practiced at the Speedbowl a week ago and then again all day on Friday, while we only practiced for a total of nine laps on Saturday morning. I knew we were one of the faster cars there, and to win the pole was really cool.”
Things got even better for the Johnson Motorsports team on Sunday afternoon when Doug pulled a chip with a number “0” on it, meaning there would be no redraw for starting positions.
“They had chips with a zero, six, eight, and ten in a hat, and whatever I pulled would determine how many cars would redraw for starting spots,” commented Doug, “I told the crowd I was 100% prepared to pull the ten, because I figured with my luck that’s how it would go, but I ended up with the zero so we started on the pole.”
Coby led the event’s first 8 laps before giving in to Dennis Gada’s relentless pressure from the outside lane.
“We ran side-by-side with Dennis for about four laps before I kind of decided that using up my equipment 146 laps before the end of the race was not the smartest decision to make,” said Doug.
Kenny Horton slid around Coby’s #10 machine on a restart on lap 17, and the top three ran in the same order for the next 100 laps.
“There were a ton of cautions,” added Doug, “And I think all of us who were up front were just waiting for the laps to click down. I was waiting for two or three big wrecks to take out some of the good cars so I could go in and get tires with about 40 laps left, but I was really surprised that there weren’t any major wrecks involving front running cars. The cars in the back wrecked a lot but they mostly just spun into the muddy infield, which destroyed any grip that we had going in turns 1 and 2. It certainly made for an interesting race with a slippery corner, fading tires, and no shot of pitting and coming back through the field.”
Doug lined up next to Jeff Pearl’s #71 on an early restart. (Fran Lawlor photo)
Coby and crew had one last shot at the $5,000 paycheck that comes with a Budweiser Nationals win when second place Horton spun by himself with 20 laps remaining.
“When Kenny spun I thought that it was just meant for us to win this race,” said Doug, “We had the preferred outside starting spot on a restart with 15 to go, and I thought I had a shot at it right until the end.”
After leading for most of the event, Gada, a six time SK Modified Track Champion at the Speedbowl, was able to hold off Doug on the next restart, and the two ran nose to tail for ten laps. A caution with five laps to go eventually set up a green, white, checkered finish with Doug once again lining up to the outside of Gada.
“Dennis is the absolute best at Waterford, and I’ve learned a lot by watching him,” said Doug, “I knew exactly what he was going to do so I was trying to think of a way to prevent it from happening. He’s so good at running you a little bit all over the track, but somehow he manages to do it as a gentleman at the same time. It’s rare that Dennis wrecks anyone, but it’s also rare that anyone gets the best of him.”
On the final restart, Doug got his best jump of the day, and despite heading into turn one side-by-side with Gada, he was unable to pull ahead of the #3.
“Dennis has this unique way of using just the right amount of racetrack to make it so the guy on the outside can’t get a killer run on him,” said Doug, “He did exactly what he had to do to slow me down enough so that he’d have the advantage going down into turn three. Once he cleared me, I had to battle it out with the 97 for second.”
Frank Ruocco got by Doug for second on the white flag lap, handing the Johnson Motorsports #10 their second consecutive third place finish to start the season.
“When Glenn (Johnson) asked me to drive for him at Stafford I told him I thought it would be a good idea for us to bring my car and motor to Thompson and Waterford for the openers, figuring a couple of decent finishes would get us some good NASCAR points for the big picture goals that we’re working towards as a team,” added Doug, “To get two third place finishes and a pole against two very stout 37 and 34 car fields is just phenomenal. Short of winning, these two races could not have been any better for us.”
The Johnson Motorsports team will be heading to an open practice session this Saturday at Stafford with Coby’s #15 and Zach Sylvester’s #51 Xtra Mart Modifieds. Following that, the next event for the team is the season opening Spring Sizzler at Stafford on Sunday April 27th. Both cars look to start the season off strong and will be gunning for a win on opening day.
Doug battled Frank Ruocco’s #97 for 3rd place during the middle stages of the race. Ruocco would later steal 2nd place from Doug on the final lap.
Johnson Motorsports PR
Coby’s Saturday qualifying time of 14.105 seconds was over a tenth of a second quicker than the previous event record set last year by Jimmy Blewett, and was just .04 seconds slower than the overall SK Modified track record held by Kenny Horton. It was Doug’s second career Pole Award, the first coming in 2004 at Wall Township Speedway in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competition.
“To be the fastest of the 34 cars that were there is a great accomplishment for our team,” said Doug, “People need to realize that this is probably one of the top two or three SK Modified fields ever assembled. Winning the pole was pretty special because a lot of guys practiced at the Speedbowl a week ago and then again all day on Friday, while we only practiced for a total of nine laps on Saturday morning. I knew we were one of the faster cars there, and to win the pole was really cool.”
Things got even better for the Johnson Motorsports team on Sunday afternoon when Doug pulled a chip with a number “0” on it, meaning there would be no redraw for starting positions.
“They had chips with a zero, six, eight, and ten in a hat, and whatever I pulled would determine how many cars would redraw for starting spots,” commented Doug, “I told the crowd I was 100% prepared to pull the ten, because I figured with my luck that’s how it would go, but I ended up with the zero so we started on the pole.”
Coby led the event’s first 8 laps before giving in to Dennis Gada’s relentless pressure from the outside lane.
“We ran side-by-side with Dennis for about four laps before I kind of decided that using up my equipment 146 laps before the end of the race was not the smartest decision to make,” said Doug.
Kenny Horton slid around Coby’s #10 machine on a restart on lap 17, and the top three ran in the same order for the next 100 laps.
“There were a ton of cautions,” added Doug, “And I think all of us who were up front were just waiting for the laps to click down. I was waiting for two or three big wrecks to take out some of the good cars so I could go in and get tires with about 40 laps left, but I was really surprised that there weren’t any major wrecks involving front running cars. The cars in the back wrecked a lot but they mostly just spun into the muddy infield, which destroyed any grip that we had going in turns 1 and 2. It certainly made for an interesting race with a slippery corner, fading tires, and no shot of pitting and coming back through the field.”
Doug lined up next to Jeff Pearl’s #71 on an early restart. (Fran Lawlor photo)
Coby and crew had one last shot at the $5,000 paycheck that comes with a Budweiser Nationals win when second place Horton spun by himself with 20 laps remaining.
“When Kenny spun I thought that it was just meant for us to win this race,” said Doug, “We had the preferred outside starting spot on a restart with 15 to go, and I thought I had a shot at it right until the end.”
After leading for most of the event, Gada, a six time SK Modified Track Champion at the Speedbowl, was able to hold off Doug on the next restart, and the two ran nose to tail for ten laps. A caution with five laps to go eventually set up a green, white, checkered finish with Doug once again lining up to the outside of Gada.
“Dennis is the absolute best at Waterford, and I’ve learned a lot by watching him,” said Doug, “I knew exactly what he was going to do so I was trying to think of a way to prevent it from happening. He’s so good at running you a little bit all over the track, but somehow he manages to do it as a gentleman at the same time. It’s rare that Dennis wrecks anyone, but it’s also rare that anyone gets the best of him.”
On the final restart, Doug got his best jump of the day, and despite heading into turn one side-by-side with Gada, he was unable to pull ahead of the #3.
“Dennis has this unique way of using just the right amount of racetrack to make it so the guy on the outside can’t get a killer run on him,” said Doug, “He did exactly what he had to do to slow me down enough so that he’d have the advantage going down into turn three. Once he cleared me, I had to battle it out with the 97 for second.”
Frank Ruocco got by Doug for second on the white flag lap, handing the Johnson Motorsports #10 their second consecutive third place finish to start the season.
“When Glenn (Johnson) asked me to drive for him at Stafford I told him I thought it would be a good idea for us to bring my car and motor to Thompson and Waterford for the openers, figuring a couple of decent finishes would get us some good NASCAR points for the big picture goals that we’re working towards as a team,” added Doug, “To get two third place finishes and a pole against two very stout 37 and 34 car fields is just phenomenal. Short of winning, these two races could not have been any better for us.”
The Johnson Motorsports team will be heading to an open practice session this Saturday at Stafford with Coby’s #15 and Zach Sylvester’s #51 Xtra Mart Modifieds. Following that, the next event for the team is the season opening Spring Sizzler at Stafford on Sunday April 27th. Both cars look to start the season off strong and will be gunning for a win on opening day.
Doug battled Frank Ruocco’s #97 for 3rd place during the middle stages of the race. Ruocco would later steal 2nd place from Doug on the final lap.
Johnson Motorsports PR