THOMPSON – NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver Doug Coby said early in the 2012 season that his goal for the year was to get a top-10 finish in all 14 events.
(Photo: Corey Sipkin/NASCAR)
Coby surmised that the consistency of a top-10 in every race would have to guarantee a series championship.
It seems though that Coby is showing the easiest way to guarantee a top-10 in each event is to finish in the top-three.
Coby extended his points lead once again Thursday with a third-place finish in the Budweiser 150 at Thompson International Speedway.
It marked the seventh consecutive top-three finish this season in the series for Coby, of Milford.
“That’s badass,” Coby said. “I think the most I ever did was maybe four in a Late Model. We’ve got our act going on. These guys put a good car together and we’ve just got to stay out of trouble.”
Coby’s worst finish this year was an eighth place in the season opening event on April 15 at Thompson. Since then he’s had four victories a second place and two third place finishes.
Though Thursday wasn’t without dramatics for Coby. He had to recover from some restart contact with Ted Christopher, but after pitting on lap 72, he fired his way back through the field, albeit with some entertainment along the way.
“I was just trying to be smart,” Coby said. “There was a lot of stupid moves out there tonight and I made a couple of them. I always do. But there was a lot of them in front of me. I don’t know what was going on tonight, but some of these guys, I just don’t know. If you’re up top you stay up top until you’re clear. If you’re on the bottom you stay on the bottom until you’re clear. These guys switch lanes like crazy. There’s a lot talented drivers in our field, but there’s a lot of rough stuff going on here, especially on restarts.”
After Ron Silk lost the lead to eventual race winner Donny Lia, on lap 129, Coby was left to battle Silk, his close friend, over the closing laps of the event.
With five laps to go Silk’s car was nearly sideway’s coming off of turn four, but Silk continued to race Coby hard right to the checkered flag.
“He wasn’t happy that he lost the lead to Donny and I know him very well,” Coby said. “He’s lucky I’m a nice guy. Not that I would have tried to wreck him or I was mad or anything, I was just racing hard. There was a couple times that contact was initiated and it wasn’t by me and the contact was taken away by me, it could have been worse. I’m not looking to wreck him, that’s the last thing I want to do is have a top-three for both of us go away I don’t care how bad his car was going away.”
NASCAR officials said Silk was excused from post-race media responsibilities because he wasn’t feeling well after the event.
Coby guessed Silk skipped because in his words “He was crabby” about the way things ended.
“His car really wasn’t good anywhere …,” Coby said. “But his choice was to move down and take my line away and that just aggravated me a little bit. When we’re racing hard at another track then I’ll take his line away and that’s how we kind of know we race each other. As long as we don’t wreck each other that’s a good finish for both of us. It’s a respect thing.
“I felt like I was the smart one in that situation tonight and there will be plenty of times later this year when he’s the smart one, so it’s fine.”
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