Doug Coby celebrates victory in the Whelen Modified Tour Budweiser 150 Wednesday at Thompson Speedway
THOMPSON – In racing parlance the term stinking up the show is a good thing to say about a driver dominating an event.
And in two Whelen Modified Tour events at Thompson Speedway before Wednesday it’s fair to say Doug Coby had been stinking up the shows pretty good, rolling to two dominant victories.
Once again Wednesday Coby looked on the path to another stinking up the show type victory at Thompson, but in the end it took a dramatic rally for the Milford driver to continue his reign at Thompson.
And when the dust settled it was one his chief competitors in the chase for the series title saying what he did on the track just plain stunk.
After getting penalized to the rear of the field with 55 laps remaining, Coby rallied back, passed Woody Pitkat for the lead on lap 142 and won the Whelen Modified Tour Budweiser 150 Wednesday at Thompson.
It was the fourth victory of the season for Coby, the 2014 series champion.
“I want to start off by thanking NASCAR,” Coby said sarcastically in victory lane over the track public address system. “They really made it interesting there. I guess when we’re out front all those laps you’ve got to do something. Guess what, you can’t stop it. I hope whether you’re a fan of our team or not that you enjoyed the show. I know a lot of you [fans] hate my guts, but I drove my ass off to get up there again and put on a show for you guys.”
“My guys told me to use my head, and I wasn’t. I use my head too much. And tonight was a night to put the car in victory lane where it deserves to be.”
Coming into the event Coby had led 251 of the 275 laps run in Whelen Modified Tour competition at the track this year. He led a race-high 89 laps Thursday and now has led 340 of 425 laps at Thompson in 2015.
Pitkat, of Stafford, was second and Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield third.
Pitkat was left seething by the move Coby used in turn three on lap 142 to get the lead.
“If he was that fast he should have been able to pass me clean at that point,” Pitkat said. “But he just sailed it down into turn three and used me as the wall to turn his car. I don’t think he even turned his car. He used me then drove off.”
Coby dominated the first half of the event, going to the lead by Donny Lia on lap 15.
When the leaders all pitted on lap 88, rookie Chase Dowling stayed out on track. On the ensuing restart, Coby got a massive jump past Dowling coming to the green flag, leading to a black flag penalty from NASCAR. Luckily for Coby, the stopped car of Shawn Solomito brought out a caution on lap 96, meaning Coby didn’t have to serve his pass through pit penalty under green flag conditions.
After the penalty Coby restarted in 18th position and quickly diced his way through traffic.
On lap 126 Pitkat made contact with then leader Ted Christopher, spinning him through turn four. Though surprisingly there was no penalty from NASCAR.
“I don’t know how that works,” Christopher said. “The guy had 20-something laps left and he’s not smart enough to figure out how to pass people without running into the side of them? I mean, it wasn’t even the side of me, he hit me in the left rear tire and spun me out.”
Coby was eighth for the ensuing restart and worked his way up to fourth by the time the caution flew on lap 136 for a multi-car frontstretch wreck, setting up the race deciding restart.
On the lap 142 restart Coby made a diving move into turn three, getting into the side of Pitkat and moving him high up the track. Szegedy was able to get by Pitkat to take over second and Eric Goodale moved to third by Pitkat.
“Doug came out of nowhere and just never turned, he got underneath me and cleaned me out,” Pitkat said. “We’ll remember that going into the next couple races.”
Pitkat ended up making contact with Szegedy on lap 146 to get back to second place, but couldn’t get close enough to exact revenge on Coby.
Szegedy said he understood the rage that was burning in Pitkat at the time.
“I understand why Woody was so pissed of because [Coby] just body slammed him,” Szegedy said. “That’s not racing to me, just driving into the side of guys. They’ve got [Sprint Cup Series] technology in [Coby’s car], it’s a fast car, they’ve got 2-3 full-time guys that work on that car every day, so it’s very fast. He doesn’t have to drive into the side of guys to go by them. So I can understand why Woody was supposed pissed. Quite frankly, I’m surprised [Pitkat] kept his cool and didn’t junk him at the end of the race.”
And Coby’s thoughts on the concerns of Pitkat and Szegedy?
“I could care less,” Coby said. “… Woody was the only car that I touched tonight and I wasn’t going to lose. That’s how it works. We had the fastest car, they should know we had the fastest car so they can be as upset as they want. We’re fired up and ready to go.”
In addressing Pitkat’s anger over the move for the lead, Coby pointed to NASCAR’s non-call on Pitkat spinning Christopher for the lead. Christopher came into the event having previously run 11,537 laps in Whelen Modified Tour action at Thompson.
“Ted Christopher, he’s got like 11,000 laps around this place,” Coby said. “… How many times has Teddy Christopher spun out by himself in 11,000 laps? Zero. So guess what, the guy spun out, somebody should get penalized and go to the back. And then you don’t have to be mad about getting hit on the restart because should be 16th where I was. It all comes full circle.”
Ryan Preece of Berlin, who came into the event with a four-point lead over Pitkat finished sixth. Pitkat moved to the points lead, one ahead of Preece. Coby remained third in the standings, but now sits eight points off the lead.
Well said Doug woody just drove right into ted to try and pass him well payback is a bitch and karma so what goes around comes around
Have at it Boys……See Ya at Bristol.
Watson will be there!!
Seriously Ted shouldn’t complain. Can’t take your own medicine Ted? After all the other cars and racers you’ve used up throughout the years, you should keep your mouth shut, hypocrite. Woody isn’t much better after what I witnessed at the tri-track race in Monadnock. Both of you should pound sand.
When your underneath a guy and the guy chops you while entering the corner your taking yourself out not the guy that’s trying to pass. You simply have NO IDEA!
Oh cry me a river TC how many guys have you done that to in your 11,000 plus laps? And have drivers forgot rubbing is racing, if he just spun you or knocked you out of the way without wrecking deal with it, keep it in the memory bank and pay it back. Oh well hell of race, and I do agree with NASCAR (sorry Doug) can’t jump the restart when you’re not the guy in P1. I watched the replay at least 10 times trying to justify for Coby and couldn’t, stupid rule because if you have a near perfect car and the guy in P1 is slow to restart you shouldn’t be penalized….but he’ll of a drive back to the front.
don’t know how woody gets pissed at colby after woody’s own pass for the lead 15 laps earlier..?
few weeks ago woody complained about guys running out of talent and running over people to pass them.and not being ale to pass without contact .. then in the next few weeks he proceeded to hit ever car he passed … spun the leader at least twice and then still complains about being passed with contact ? seems a little too much to ask … don’t get me wrong i enjoy watching woody and think he is a talented “shoe” but maybe he needs to zip it a bit…. or race people how he wants to be raced … Just a thought.
I like Woody, but it is definately the pot calling the kettle black. Meanwhile, is it me or is Doug getting just a tad bit cocky?
So glad Doug actually said what he was feeling… He usually tries to be so nice in interviews. Really great to see him all fired up. Can’t wait for Bristol!!!
Teddy got Teddied lol . How much money has Ted cost other teams and drivers over the years ? I’m guess it’s in the millions ! He’s a super over aggressive and it was pay back time . Lol Karma is a B**** ! Sorry Chris Our love your team and your car but he’s a marked man . I know all you Teddy fans will not like this but get over it . He should be our Senior leader not a bad ex sample for our youth . Other than that what a race . Doug drove his butt off , Woody was Awesome and poor Ryan missed his his set up . Crowd was loving it . This is the best Mod tour hands down . The north east Patton place !!
The drivers in this series are getting to be an annoyance. All of these guys are incredibly talented with the capability of racing clean but decide to drive into each other week after week. Then they go on the microphone and cry about the other drivers incompetence instead of playing it cool. The complaining is becoming a trend and trickling to the drivers in lower divisions. They all need to stop being a bunch of whining hypocrites. Not appealing to the fans.
Youhavenoidea, your name suits you… Woody got his nose in there and Ted came down. Racing incident plain and simple just as was seen by NASCAR. I am a fan of both, and would have rather seen a good battle. But absolutely the right call. TC knew his car wasn’t as fast as Woody and tried to squeeze him a little bit. Just didn’t work out for him.
Youhavenoidea, I have been around long enough to know that TC is what they call a “Wheelman”, but in the 30 plus years I have been watching him race, I have seen him do it all! He is certainly not known as Mr. Clean and what I saw last night was although TC had a good car, he didn’t have a great car. Quite frankly, he sucked on restarts, I don’t know if something was wrong with his tranny or what, but he bogged down several restarts, backing up those behind him. Also as different drivers got to him, he was doing what he had to do to make it hard for them to pass him, even though they were clearly faster. It is called pick a line, you can’t change your line when someone is already there, I did not to see Pitkat get into TC’s left rear, as TC states, what I saw was Pitkat send it in on the bottom, when he got to the side of TC, TC decided to pull one of those “change my line” moves, Pitkat did not back out of it, as some of the others drivers did when he pulled that on them earlier in the race. I did not see Pitkat just drive right into TC as Coby did to Pitkat, perhaps you should read Coby’s facebook post saying he was ashamed and embarrassed by the way he passed Pitkat, that he posted about 90 minutes after this story was written. Some say they have never seen TC spin by himself, go to Stafford on Friday nights this season, some nights it is not of his own doing, some nights he trys something stupid like he did last night. While TC may be a “Wheelman”, it appears in his old age he is becoming a “Whining Wheelman”. If NASCAR saw what you saw and what TC claims, Pitkat would have been black flagged, that was not the case. What TC did to the 22 car of Barrett at the World Series last year was way out of line, this incident was not, as NASCAR stated, just a racing incident! I saw it as a racing incident TC could have prevented, so lets not have a pity party for him. Just my opinion.
Oh boy.The pitkat clan can hate Coby now,Pressure off Preece.lmao
Not sure if it was the car or the driver but Coby SCHOOLED TC on a couple of those restarts, Both times TC fell back to 3rd. Tensions definitely rising as we get closer to the championship. I love it! Like Ray said, see ya at Bristol. Awesome tour racing this year.
Sucks there will be no same day tv coverage for Bristol. Really sucks!!
I agree Chris D.
One of the things I’ve liked about Doug all along is his thoughtful approach to his comments, interviews – much like RaceDayNH says..
I appreciate his thoughtful actions with the flag for JBIII, but if this is the way he’s really matured after 11+ years on the tour (like it or not, an elder statesmen now) I’m not impressed. Rocket ship or not.
He’s got cup guys working on the car? Cool. His comments sound like cup mentality – Not cool!!! This is I despise.. i.e., “I had the fastest car, did what I had to do, therefore I stand here proud as hell, the victor!!”
Ya know, it bums me out – apparently Szegedy doesn’t recall when he pulled this same crap a while back at HNIS and defended himself as if it’s acceptable.. It’s not – and apparently nobody is immune to this behavior (driving style and brashness).
Most of u r saying it was a good race.. Prolly due to the fastest car came from the back.., duh. Lineups should b handicapped jmo
It was a good race… mostly because of Coby’s charge back to the front. There’s NOTHING like the Modifieds running around Thompson… it’s exhilarating.
– Kind of a short field. Just 30 cars. But a high percentage of those cars were quality cars.
– Don’t understand how/why Woody didn’t get penalized for dumping the leader, Teddy (at least, that’s how it looked from my seat). Also didn’t understand how TC was able to blend back into the pack about mid-way — rather than behind all the other lead lap cars.
– The body slamming is getting kind of old. “Boys have at it” is getting kind of old. You know what that leads to? Car owners spending money. And getting p*ssed off to the point that they eventually get out of racing. There are enough reasons why racing is on the decline; let’s not add to them.
– Good-sized crowd at the track, which I’m always happy to see. But the show ran too long — 5 divisions, plus qualifiers for each, plus time trials for the Mods. A 150-lap race plus 3 support divisions would be enough. Didn’t need the midgets (Who won? Whoever didn’t break!) and the Monster Mini class is getting smaller and smaller. Just stick to the SKs, Late Models and Limited Late Models next time.
Sounds like a lot of frustration all the way around – Woody is doing great in the 88 but hasn’t he had recent issues/accusations of overly aggressive driving? Todd had no issue banging Lia out of the way several years ago (in the #2) for a victory at NHIS – sounds like Todd still is dealing with losing his ride in the 2, if its a “Cup team” why didn’t he win every race & championship when he was in the car? And Doug sounds frustrated also – more with some questionable NASCAR rulings that don’t appear fair and equal across the board – he has always been well spoken and represents the tour as the Champion he is (listen to the tape of last years Championship banquet). The 2 team just might out work & out smart the competition, at least this year at Thompson – what a performance!
Ted was able to get going again before some of the lead lap cars went by him after the spin, he didn’t pit so he restarted around twelfth.
Just wondering why Doug Coby took down his Facebook post where he stated he was “ashamed and embarrassed” for the way he passed Pitkat. It was quite a long post, not quite the same tone as the articles posted on this site, in fact I did notice that he did tag Woody Pitkat in this post and there was 67 likes as of 1:30 am this morning. Possibly, someone suggested he take it down or maybe he was hacked! Lol Again, Just my thoughts…
Chris D: Is that the rule? Thought the car that caused the yellow had to restart at the rear.
“Well remember that going into the next couple races ” that pit- kart he is not to smart what a wood chuck advertising like he is going to junk that little girl Doug coby. These guys would have never made it back in the day .
Where or when did pitcart ever say he was going to junk Doug Colby?
He stated if that’s how he wants to drive them he would keep that in his memory bank for future races but no where did he say he was gonna junk him. Did Colby junk him? You people are dilussionly dumb asses hiding behind your computer day after day. Don’t you have better things to do with your life like go to work or play with your kids? Give it a rest!
Amen
I did not hear Pitkat say he was going to junk Coby, perhaps Jim should go to NASCAR Hometracks and replay the audio of Pitkat. What I got out of of it is, Pitkat will remember the way Coby passed him, they still have a few races left, if some night Pitkat passes Coby the same way, oh well! Why would drivers running for a Championship “junk” each other? By the way Jim, if this was” back in the day,” Coby would probably have a couple black eyes that he got out in the parking lot on his way home, that is how things were taken care of “Back in the day”! Again, just my thoughts…
Doug had the best car out there he is a vary good driver the kids were whining because of it put on your big boy diapers kids it is going to be fun to watch this play out. Go Doug
” You people are dillusionly hiding behind your computers day after day ” really BIG SMOKE and what are you doing ? Let’s see what happens at the next couple races . Let’s say Woody tries to pass coby like he passed the 4 car or the 22 at Thompson and knocks him into the fence at Bristol . You can interpret ” we’ll see what happens at the next couple races ” anyway you want to . I am all wrong here because if you consider the source woody the wood chuck . JMO
Jim, I am sure Jimmy Wilson {WMT Director} will be addressing any pay back issues at the drivers meeting at Bristol,TN this week, and I am sure there will be consquences for ANY driver that tries to pull anything like that, as there should be. May I suggest you listen to the post race audio of the top three finishers again, I believe Pitkat said something along the lines of, I will put that pass in my memory book, we have another 5 races to go, we will have to see what happens. Szegedy says in his interview that he was surprised that Pitkat kept his cool after the pass Coby made, and was surprised he did not “junk” Coby after the checkered flag. Go ahead to NASCAR hometracks and have a listen to all three of them. Teams are spending thousands of dollars to travel to Bristol, TN for this race, I would hope that payback and junking another driver would be the last thing on any legitimate drivers mind, but what do I know, time will tell. Good Luck to all drivers heading to Bristol this week, hoping to see a great show put on by all.
Interesting karma at Bristol huh? One week the brash victor, the next Doug can’t make it 2 laps and junks not only himself but the 41 and 51, both contenders..
I wonder if he could “care less” now?