Picture This: Whelen Modified Tour New England 100 Action From NHMS

Donny Lia (8) and Doug Coby (2) race for the lead Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Donny Lia (8) and Doug Coby (2) race for the lead Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

LOUDON, N.H. – Saturday, for the fourth time in the last eight NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway it was Doug Coby celebrating victory at the 1.058-mile oval.

Coby, of Milford, held off Donny Lia on the final lap to win for the second consecutive event at NHMS.

Last September Coby won at NHMS to kick off a streak of three consecutive wins to close out the 2015 season and clinch his second consecutive series title and third championship overall.

Check out below some views from Saturday at the track from RaceDayCT photographer Fran Lawlor.

Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch shows off the decal on his car memorializing

Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch shows off the decal on his car memorializing Joe Brady, Mario Fiore and Ron Bouchard (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Woody Pitkat (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Woody Pitkat (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Max Zachem (center) (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Max Zachem (center) (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Gary Putnam (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Gary Putnam (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Andrew Krause (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Andrew Krause (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Rowan Pennink (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Rowan Pennink (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Timmy Solomito (right) (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Timmy Solomito (right) (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Todd Szegedy (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Todd Szegedy (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Jimmy Blewett (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Jimmy Blewett (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Patrick Emerling (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Patrick Emerling (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Justin Bonsignore (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Justin Bonsignore (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Ken Heagy (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Ken Heagy (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Woody Pitkat (85), Doug Coby (2) and Ryan Newman (77) fighting for position Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Woody Pitkat (85), Doug Coby (2) and Ryan Newman (77) fighting for position Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby (2) and Ryan Preece (6) battle for position Saturday at NHMS

Doug Coby (2) and Ryan Preece (6) battle for position Saturday at NHMS

Patrick Emerling (07), Woody Pitkat (85) and Ryan Newman (77) battle for position Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Patrick Emerling (07), Woody Pitkat (85) and Ryan Newman (77) battle for position Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Donny Lia (8) and Doug Coby (2) race for the lead Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Donny Lia (8) and Doug Coby (2) race for the lead Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby celebrates victory Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby celebrates victory Saturday at NHMS (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

The Mike Smeriglio Racing crew celebrates in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

The Mike Smeriglio Racing crew celebrates in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby (left) and crew chief Phil Moran (right) in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby (left) and crew chief Phil Moran (right) in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby (left) with his father in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Doug Coby (left) with his father in victory lane Saturday (Photo: Fran Lawlor)

Comments

  1. Great pictures , THANKS

  2. Halfway break what a joke !

  3. Very nice, thank you.

  4. Wow Only word that comes to mind when I hear “halfway break” is PATHETIC!! WHO, WHAT, WHY, in the world came up with what has to be the most dumbest ( but this is NASCAR,SO IM SURE SOMETHING ELSE WILL TOP THIS BONEHEAD IDEA) new rule yet. I would like to start a “conversation” about this,but I dont think that is possible..I dont even know why IM commenting on this..Its just so stupid,its right there with the cra cra rules in the truck series…I predict the next new rule will be during the “halftime break” it will be mandatory,each driver must have lunch.And it must be a samwich,purchased at the track..
    What was once the greatest division in racing,it is quickly becoming “SPRINT RACING II”.. Maybe worse if that is possible.

  5. Congrats doug
    You guys deserve it
    Great pics too
    Respect is what you guys represent!!!!!
    Good luck at next race

  6. Bill Emhoff says

    I agree with Dennis all the way with that stupid half time break. It is an insult to all the crews of the modifieds. To me NASCAR is saying the modifieds don’t come up professional for the pit stops. I would like to challenge any of the Sprint cup crews do the modified pit stop. I think that they would have a hard time doing the 5 wide wheels. It is about time that NASCAR woke up and started realizing that the WHELEN Modifieds are more than the red headed step child. To me the only reason that the Mods have to run restrictor plates is to slow us down so we don’t stink up the big boys show on Sunday. No wonder there isn’t more cars running the tour is all the stupid rules that they come up with out of Daytona!

  7. Congrats to the 2 team.But,that race was horrible,not like the old mod races at new Hampshire.I will not be going back anytime soon.

  8. the half way caution was a god send, yes maybe the pit stops should have been real but the caution was well overdue – watching the single file racing like the other series gets boring real quick.

  9. Racing and strategy is very different when it is KNOWN that there is a yellow coming out at a certain lap.

  10. Racepig46 says

    To all: Everybody agrees that we dislike the halfway break. I understand that it’s easy to click the comment field and pour out your feelings. However, I would have to think that the most effective method to grant a rule change for us modified fans would be to contact the series director. His email is [email protected] (I even did the hard part for you).
    Another thing, when you contact the director you might get further if you refrain from using words like “pathetic”, “bonehead”, “stupid”, and make claims that NASCAR doesn’t care about our precious modifieds. Try being cordial and start your email by saying how appreciative you are that they include the modifieds in the big weekend.
    I understand the passion, but let’s not be our own worst enemy. Also, this little piece of advice might be helpful if translated into real world situations 🙂

  11. That is wonderful advice coming from someone named Racepig46. LOL!!!

    Jimmy Wilson is just a tool, er, not the right person. He can’t do anything about the intermission. Need to get a couple levels above Jimmy Wilson.

    And since Donald Trump uses words like pathetic, bonehead, stupid, weak, low energy, loser, etc. and it has gotten him to be a billionaire and presidential contender, it MUST be the right thing to do.

    It is kinda funny watching people in the stands, when the competition caution comes out, looking around saying, “WTF?” and have no idea why there is a yellow.

  12. Some guy says

    Every race I go to I realize more and more that the best years of the division are clearly behind it…and that makes me sad.

  13. The new guy is throwing down emails already. LOL. That’s cute but Dareal is correct, he is not the guy. I don’t like the halftime but it all honestly it didn’t affect the race one way or the other like it has in the past. I enjoyed Saturday. can’t wait for September. So what ended up happening with the pit crew challenge. I’m still peeved about how that went down.

  14. Crazy in NY says

    It wouldn’t be so bad if they only advertised what it actually is. 50 laps of practice and 50 laps real racing.

    Best damn 50 lap racing you’ll likely see anywhere however.

  15. Is that Rick Harrison from “Pawn Stars” in the shot with Max Zachem ?

  16. The thing is, the NWMT teams love to go to Loudon and show how good they are. They want to show that they are every bit as good as the national tours. And they are. The Modified race is believed by many to be the best show of the weekend. To take away the hot pit stop is telling these team they are “special”, and not good enough to do hot pit stops. That is complete BS and insulting. What has happened over the long history of great modified Loudon races that requires the Competition Caution?

    NH Mark, I read that the 4 Team, Mystic Missile, won the Pit Stop Challenge.

  17. The halfway break at Bristol is due to not all teams have a full crew. Not sure why they started having the halfway break at Loudon but rumor was due to the spec motor needing a fuel stop.

  18. Fast Eddie says

    I think fastang is correct. When the car counts were getting lower at Loudon, Nascar found some of the teams weren’t going due to not having a full crew available for pit stops. Nascar came up with the 1/2 way break to level the playing field so smaller teams could compete, trying to increase the field size. Or at least that’s what they said it was. Then the spec engines appeared and needed more fuel.

  19. Most of you guys hear are probably to young to have ever seen the best modified racing ever but I can tell you if you went to poconos in the early 70’s and watched them guys drive them cars on the superspeedway you would be saying WTF . Yup that was the bomb ! Some guy is right the best years of the mods are gone at least as I knew it .

  20. To Bill Emhoff ,
    The reason the mods run the plates at Loudon has nothing to do with them “embarrassing the Cup cars with speed.” It all has to with what was happening with Modifieds around the time Loudon first came onto the schedule. This was during the period that drivers in the Modifeds were being killed on a pretty regular basis. Many people did not think adding the series to Loudon was good idea because drivers were being killed on half mile and shorter tracks, so they figured it would be really bad on a mile track. Then there were 2 more modified deaths in New England in the spring of 1990 months before the tour debuted at Loudon. This caused quite a few people to freak out. NASCAR and the track had one of the teams do a test there both with and without the restrictor plate. The driver told them going with the plate would be the best option. And the truth is the Modifieds were actually just as fast or slightly faster than the Cup cars the first couple years they both ran the track(then the technology with both the tires and cars in Cup just took off causing there speeds to increase at all tracks) Plus, the mods had been faster at Martinsville forever and this was a period where the Busch cars were faster than Cup on some short tracks. The whole “slowed them down” so they would not show up the Cup guys is just some revisionist theory shares by fans who did not understand what was going on then and older drivers who love to tell BS stories.

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