RGeeProductions
06-09-2008, 03:34 PM
The Johnson Motorsports SK Modified team and driver Doug Coby won their first race of the 2008 season this past Saturday with a dominating performance in the 35-lap SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl. Coby and crew started third, grabbed the lead on lap 4 and led the final 31 laps of the event. It was Doug’s second career win at Waterford and first with the Johnson Motorsports team.
With daytime temperatures hovering near 90 degrees and the ACT Late Model touring series invading the Speedbowl, the team had several decisions to make regarding the setup of their car.
“The ACT cars run on Goodyear tires whereas we’re on Hoosiers,” said Doug, “I didn’t race at the Speedbowl the last time they were in town back in 2003 so I wasn’t sure how it would affect the track. We kept our regular setup in the car and made a few minor changes that we had been planning to make anyway, and we ended up with a pretty good car in practice and in the heat race, which we won. It wasn’t the fastest day for lap times at the track with the temperature being so high, but we knew we had a good car for the race.”
After waiting out the 100-lap ACT Late Model event, the SK Modifieds took to the track with Mike Sweeney and Wendell Dailey on the front row. Doug started third, alongside the #91 of Jeff Paul. When the field took the green, Sweeney jumped out into the lead with the Johnson Motorsports entry right behind him in second place. The #10 made quick work of Sweeney, grabbing the lead on lap four. Tyler Chadwick followed Doug past Sweeney, and the two pulled away from the field. Over the next few laps, Doug distanced himself from Chadwick as the field settled in for a long green flag run. In fact, the first caution of the event didn’t come out until there were only 11 laps remaining.
“It’s not typical of an SK race to go 24 laps before the first caution,” said Doug, “But it can happen from time to time if we can get through the first ten laps or so. We really stretched out our lead over those first 24 laps and I was pretty much just cruising along for a while. I didn’t want to use the car up because I knew there would probably be a caution or two along the way, but I also wanted to make sure I knew enough about what the car was doing so that I’d know how good we would be if the field got bunched up due to a caution.”
On the restart with 11 laps to go, Doug shot out into the lead and quickly built up a five car length advantage over Chadwick.
“You never know how the car is going to react after a restart,” said Doug, “Sometimes you can have a perfect car beforehand and then it gets tight or loose once the tires had a chance to cool off. Our car stayed exactly the same and we were able to get some breathing room over the 27. Tyler’s been really fast all season so I was happy that I didn’t have a ton of pressure from him after the restart.”
As the race wound down, Coby and Chadwick continued to hold down the top two positions, while six-time track champion Dennis Gada motored into the third spot with eight to go. Another caution with four laps remaining set the stage for a battle to the finish.
It took several tries for the race to get going again. On the first attempt, a car in the back of the field spun coming off of turn two after the field had just taken the green. On the next try, Chadwick took the lead away going into turn 1 before the NASCAR officials ruled he had jumped the start and called it back.
“I was trying to restart at different points within the Speedbowl’s ‘restart box’ which is where the leader can choose to restart where he wants to,” commented Doug, “Tyler definitely started going a few feet before I did, but I got pushed a little bit, and rather than just slowing up completely, I kept going. I think the officials did what they’ve consistently done all season by calling it back because it was just an ugly restart. I made sure there wouldn’t be any more problems on the next one though.”
The last restart proved to be the final restart of the race, and Doug made it count. He cleared Chadwick going into turn one and left Chadwick, Gada, and Paul to battle it out for second. Doug went on to win by .766 seconds, or about four car lengths.
“Last year my father and I bought this Troyer car and wanted to run the Speedbowl with it,” said Doug, “We were there with our flatbed hauler and two crew guys that made it to most of the races. For this season, teaming up with Glenn Johnson to run Stafford has been a great opportunity for me because they have such a great team, and bringing our #10 car to the Johnson Motorsports shop has been great for all of us. We’ve learned some things to try out on the Stafford car because of our efforts at Waterford, and to bring a win home early in the season is a great motivator for our whole team. Now we’re going to want to win even more, and just knowing that we’ve already been there this season will help remind us that this team has got the potential to do some great things.”
The Johnson Motorsports #10 will be back in action at the Waterford Speedbowl next Saturday, but prior to that the team’s #15 and 51 SK Modifieds will be at Stafford on Friday for the running of the Coors Light SK Modified 100, which was postponed last Friday night due to fog.
Johnson Motorsports PR
With daytime temperatures hovering near 90 degrees and the ACT Late Model touring series invading the Speedbowl, the team had several decisions to make regarding the setup of their car.
“The ACT cars run on Goodyear tires whereas we’re on Hoosiers,” said Doug, “I didn’t race at the Speedbowl the last time they were in town back in 2003 so I wasn’t sure how it would affect the track. We kept our regular setup in the car and made a few minor changes that we had been planning to make anyway, and we ended up with a pretty good car in practice and in the heat race, which we won. It wasn’t the fastest day for lap times at the track with the temperature being so high, but we knew we had a good car for the race.”
After waiting out the 100-lap ACT Late Model event, the SK Modifieds took to the track with Mike Sweeney and Wendell Dailey on the front row. Doug started third, alongside the #91 of Jeff Paul. When the field took the green, Sweeney jumped out into the lead with the Johnson Motorsports entry right behind him in second place. The #10 made quick work of Sweeney, grabbing the lead on lap four. Tyler Chadwick followed Doug past Sweeney, and the two pulled away from the field. Over the next few laps, Doug distanced himself from Chadwick as the field settled in for a long green flag run. In fact, the first caution of the event didn’t come out until there were only 11 laps remaining.
“It’s not typical of an SK race to go 24 laps before the first caution,” said Doug, “But it can happen from time to time if we can get through the first ten laps or so. We really stretched out our lead over those first 24 laps and I was pretty much just cruising along for a while. I didn’t want to use the car up because I knew there would probably be a caution or two along the way, but I also wanted to make sure I knew enough about what the car was doing so that I’d know how good we would be if the field got bunched up due to a caution.”
On the restart with 11 laps to go, Doug shot out into the lead and quickly built up a five car length advantage over Chadwick.
“You never know how the car is going to react after a restart,” said Doug, “Sometimes you can have a perfect car beforehand and then it gets tight or loose once the tires had a chance to cool off. Our car stayed exactly the same and we were able to get some breathing room over the 27. Tyler’s been really fast all season so I was happy that I didn’t have a ton of pressure from him after the restart.”
As the race wound down, Coby and Chadwick continued to hold down the top two positions, while six-time track champion Dennis Gada motored into the third spot with eight to go. Another caution with four laps remaining set the stage for a battle to the finish.
It took several tries for the race to get going again. On the first attempt, a car in the back of the field spun coming off of turn two after the field had just taken the green. On the next try, Chadwick took the lead away going into turn 1 before the NASCAR officials ruled he had jumped the start and called it back.
“I was trying to restart at different points within the Speedbowl’s ‘restart box’ which is where the leader can choose to restart where he wants to,” commented Doug, “Tyler definitely started going a few feet before I did, but I got pushed a little bit, and rather than just slowing up completely, I kept going. I think the officials did what they’ve consistently done all season by calling it back because it was just an ugly restart. I made sure there wouldn’t be any more problems on the next one though.”
The last restart proved to be the final restart of the race, and Doug made it count. He cleared Chadwick going into turn one and left Chadwick, Gada, and Paul to battle it out for second. Doug went on to win by .766 seconds, or about four car lengths.
“Last year my father and I bought this Troyer car and wanted to run the Speedbowl with it,” said Doug, “We were there with our flatbed hauler and two crew guys that made it to most of the races. For this season, teaming up with Glenn Johnson to run Stafford has been a great opportunity for me because they have such a great team, and bringing our #10 car to the Johnson Motorsports shop has been great for all of us. We’ve learned some things to try out on the Stafford car because of our efforts at Waterford, and to bring a win home early in the season is a great motivator for our whole team. Now we’re going to want to win even more, and just knowing that we’ve already been there this season will help remind us that this team has got the potential to do some great things.”
The Johnson Motorsports #10 will be back in action at the Waterford Speedbowl next Saturday, but prior to that the team’s #15 and 51 SK Modifieds will be at Stafford on Friday for the running of the Coors Light SK Modified 100, which was postponed last Friday night due to fog.
Johnson Motorsports PR