Doug Coby celebrates his second consecutive Whelen Modified Tour championship Sunday at Thompson Speedway (Photo: Billy Weiss/Getty Images for NASCAR)
THOMPSON – When Doug Coby was 13 years old driving a Quarter Midget at the Little T Speedway at Thompson Speedway he and his father were leaving the track one night while a Monster Truck Show was taking place at the facility.
The trailer his father was towing caught a guide wire connected to a light pole at the track as they were leaving the parking lot.
“The trailer caught the wire and shook the pole and the lights went out on the whole racetrack,” Coby said. “We don’t know what happened after that because my dad is the type of guy to not hang around and find out.”
Sunday the 36-year old from Milford had another lights out moment at Thompson, though this time it was Coby turning the lights out on the competition for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship.
It was essentially Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks, in racecars.
Two weeks of big buildup and hearty hype heading into one of the closest championship events in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour history and in the end it was essentially a blowout day.
Coby rolled to a dominant victory and his second consecutive championship driving the Mike Smeriglio Racing No. 2 car.
It was the third series title in the past four seasons for Coby, who won the 2012 championship driving for car owner Wayne Darling. Last season was his first driving for car owner Mike Smeriglio.
Coby led 99 of 150 laps, passing Justin Bonsignore for the lead on lap 145.
“This car just couldn’t be denied today,” Coby said.
Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., ended up second and Timmy Solomito of Islip, N.Y. was third.
“This year had some scars along the way, which is different than in the past,” Coby said. “But whatever happened leading up to this, we had the best car all year. We were a top-two car every race whether we finished there or not. We have seven wins out of 15 races. That’s a championship team. That’s a performance worthy of a championship. I’m proud of them. They did a great job.”
The victory and championship completed an astounding rally for Coby, who was in third place in the standings – 25 points out of the lead – with three events remaining. Coby closed out the season by winning the final three events, and the pole at each of those events. The streak started at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the F.W. Webb 100 on Sept. 26. He also won the NAPA Fall Final 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway on Oct. 4.
“Three poles and three wins in a row,” Coby said. “… Holy crap, three wins and three poles in a row, I haven’t even thought about that. That might be more impressive to me than anything. To go to Loudon, Stafford, Thompson, which are the three big tracks on our series.”
Coby came into Sunday’s event tied with Ryan Preece at the top of the standings with Woody Pitkat in third, four points off the lead.
Pitkat, of Stafford, rallied after an early flat tire and penalty and finished fifth. Preece, of Berlin, was seventh. Coby ended the season 11 points ahead of second place Preece, with Pitkat 13 points behind Coby in third. It was the fourth consecutive year that Coby and Preece have finished 1-2 in the series standings. Preece won the series title in 2013.
It was the seventh victory in 15 Whelen Modified Tour events this year for Coby and completed a sweep of all four Whelen Modified Tour events this season at Thompson.
“To win all the races here this year, this is a special place,” Coby said. “This is a place where a lot of people are good. To be the best here all four races is really neat.”
Coby joined Mike Stefanik (seven titles) and Tony Hirschman (five titles) to become the third driver in the 31-year history of the tour to win three or more championships.
“I’ve been racing since 1986,” Coby said. “Every year. Every summer. I’m not a young kid anymore. It’s a special feeling, I feel a little bit of validation. You go through enough years of wondering where you’re going to go. I finally realized when I was around like 25 or so that I’m only going to race in the Northeast. I’m not going to get a phone call tomorrow because I won a third Modified Tour championship, to go run full-time in [the Camping World Truck Series] or XFINITY Series. It’s not going to happen. And I knew that 10 years ago. I was Ok with that 10 years ago and I’m still Ok with that now. So all I wanted to focus on was what’s the best thing you can do in the Northeast, which is the Modified Tour. And this is it.”
Coby led the first 93 laps before pitting under caution with all the leaders. Coby came out of the pits behind Bonsignore. Bonsignore went to the lead past Patrick Emerling on lap 103 and then battle mightily with Coby for the top spot for the next 40 laps.
“Justin was snug and then he got loose,” Coby said. “I just wanted to stay out of trouble. I was trying to run the bottom and just stay away from him and he got real loose coming off of turn [four] and I said ‘Ok, I’m going to pull up next to him in [turns] one and two’ and his car just went away.”
Said Bonsignore: “I think Doug was toying with us. He’s been the king this year. Congrats to them and their championship. I really wanted to win the World Series. We’ve won all the other big races here and it would have been nice. The way we had our season go, that’s a really good run for us. Hopefully that shows everybody this is the team we should have had this year.”
Neither Preece or Coby ever made a challenge to get by Coby at any point during the event. Coby said only once during the race did he even ask over the radio where they were.
“With 25 to go I asked because I was on Justin to go for it and I wanted to know if they were in a position when a restart happened to be fourth or sixth because I figured if they were fourth or sixth when a caution came out that put them in a spot to be near me,” Coby said. “So if they were coming forward I would have pushed Justin harder sooner.”
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour-Sunoco World Series 150 Results
Sunday
At Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
Thompson, Conn.
Lap length: 0.625 miles
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (1) Doug Coby, Milford, Conn., Chevrolet, 150 laps, 76.897 mph.
2. (8) Justin Bonsignore, Holtsville, N.Y., Chevrolet, 150.
3. (2) Timmy Solomito, Islip, N.Y., Ford, 150.
4. (13) Todd Szegedy, Ridgefield, Conn., Dodge, 150.
5. (3) Woody Pitkat, Stafford, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
6. (19) Patrick Emerling, Orchard Park, N.Y., Chevrolet, 150.
7. (5) Ryan Preece, Berlin, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
8. (4) Ted Christopher, Plainville, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
9. (15) Chase Dowling, Roxbury, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
10. (6) Donny Lia, Jericho, N.Y., Chevrolet, 150.
11. (7) Jeff Goodale, Riverhead, N.Y., Chevrolet, 150.
12. (21) Keith Rocco, Wallingford, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
13. (18) Shawn Solomito, Islip, N.Y., Chevrolet, 150.
14. (26) Anthony Nocella, Woburn, Mass., Chevrolet, 150.
15. (10) Max Zachem, Preston, Conn., Chevrolet, 150.
16. (16) Bobby Santos, Franklin, Mass., Chevrolet, 149.
17. (27) Kyle Soper, Manorville, N.Y., Chevrolet, 149.
18. (28) Jamie Tomaino, Howell, N.J., Chevrolet, 149.
19. (25) Ken Heagy, Calverton, N.Y., Chevrolet, 149.
20. (30) Gary McDonald, Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Chevrolet, 148.
21. (23) Craig Lutz, Miller Place, N.Y., Chevrolet, 147.
22. (9) John Beatty, Jr., Merrick, N.Y., Chevrolet, 118, handling.
23. (11) Eric Goodale, Riverhead, N.Y., Chevrolet, 98, accident.
24. (32) Danny Watts, Jr., Riverhead, N.Y., Chevrolet, 89, accident.
25. (31) Melissa Fifield, Wakefield, N.H., Chevrolet, 83, suspension.
26. (14) James Civali, Meriden, Conn., Chevrolet, 74, rear end.
27. (20) Matt Swanson, Acton, Mass., Chevrolet, 53, rear end.
28. (12) Kyle Ellwood, Riverhead, N.Y., Chevrolet, 51, accident.
29. (29) Wade Cole, Hartland, Conn., Chevrolet, 41, accident.
30. (24) Ray Graham, Fulton, N.Y., Chevrolet, 40, accident.
31. (17) Steve Masse, Bellingham, Mass., Chevrolet, 2, accident.
32. (22) Dave Sapienza, Riverhead, N.Y., Chevrolet, 2, accident.
Race Statistics
Time of Race: 1 hour 13 minutes 9 seconds
Margin of Victory: 0.690 seconds
Fastest Qualifier: D.Coby (121.189 mph, 18.566 seconds)
Caution Flags: 6 for 36 laps.
Lead Changes: 3 among 3 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Coby 1-93; P. Emerling 94-102; J. Bonsignore 103-144; D. Coby 145-150.
Standings: 1. D. Coby, 613; 2. R. Preece, 602; 3. W. Pitkat, 600; 4. T. Szegedy, 535; 5. P. Emerling, 515; 6. T. Solomito, 514; 7. D. Lia, 490; 8. E. Goodale, 486; 9. C. Dowling, 481; 10. J. Bonsignore, 478.
You said you would have pushed Justin a little harder ,hopefully not as hard as Ryan at NH
Well, when it’s only a series that has 3 cars that can win, no surprise that the same car won at the same track 4 times.
And if it weren’t for Woody in the 88 and that team really picking up performance this year, it’d be a two car series – the 2 and the 6. NASCAR did not have the balls to call the 2 for the penalty at NH, so the series championship is hollow, IMHO.
I have no dog in this fight either, It’s just the way the WMT has declined over the years, and I don’t waste my time or money going – for these reasons.
I’ll take a series where at least 6-10 cars can win anytime. VMRS, SKs, whatever, and race directors aren’t afraid to make a call – even if it is unpopular.
Give me a series where driver talent is showcased – not where the rewards got to teams that have tons of money that can make up for the hack driving style behind the wheel.
Coby’s first championship? Well deserved and impressive. Last year? Good, with an asterisk. This year? Completely hollow – but looks great for LFR chassis.
Congrats, LFR.
Well, that was totally predictable, wasn’t it? Just like we said it would be.
Congrats to Doug, even with the best of everything he still had to get it done.
That being said, the fact that so few cars can win kept me from driving 200 miles today, plunking down $55.00 and freezing all day.
When is the race on TV?
Bob,
The race will be televised Thursday on NBCSN at 8 pm.
JR, completely agree.
So JR, if you don’t go to the races and watch the events why are you trolling on this website. Just need to be heard? While Coby did put it together down the stretch it has still been a great season. Very entertaining. The best season in many years in my opinion. You would know that had you been to some events. Let’s let the 2 team have their day now please.
Folks,
The rules for vulgarity have not been lifted here, if you swear in a comment it won’t be published. And that includes taking one letter out of a particular word and replacing it with a symbol and trying to pass that off. If the intent is there it’s going to get deleted. It’s really not that complicated.
Its not a 2 or 3 race winning division. Look at the last 3-5 years. This year we had a new chassis introduced from down south and guess what, the others all got caught sleeping. When is the last time you saw a team win 7 races in a 15 race season after winning 1 race the year before?? Doesn’t happen. Give all these teams credit though. This series doesn’t need to reset points with 10 to go to make it interesting. These guys all did great all year to have a points battle this tight. Kudos to all the top 10 teams. To hear that Woody went to the 2 teams party after to shake Dougs hand, now that’s first class. Jr you might have stopped watching but I am a bigger fan than ever now of these open wheeled monsters. Cant wait to watch them live at Concord. Hope the top teams make the trip.
TC and Lia won almost every event in 2009 I think it was. 7 wins not unheard of.
Can’t wait for 2016.
Well said JR.
The series is in freefall with a lot of the quality drivers either ignoring the series completely, or just picking & choosing their races. Seeing Rowan Pennink walking around the grandstand on Sunday drove that point home again.
On to another subject regarding Thompson – the parking situation was absolutely horrible. Access to the ticket booths is extremely limited, and it took over an hour to get out of the parking lot after the races were over.
The fact that so many people would brave the elements like they did, just to get dumped on by Thompson Speedway management because they view the oval fans as 3rd class citizens is totally disrespectful of the people who are making an effort to support the place.
Thompson Speedway has to be one of the most fan unfriendly race tracks in the Northeast.
As an oval track fan, I get the same feeling from Thompson Speedway ownership, as I got from Six Flags once they purchased Riverside Park.
NH Mark,
JR and Bob have very good points.
” It was the fourth consecutive year that Coby and Preece have finished 1-2 in the series standings. Preece won the series title in 2013. ”
It was not a three car race for the championship, it was one car race. If not for the accidents at Loudon (July) and Bristol, the 2 would have had about an additional 50 points, and locked up the championship very early. The rest were racing for second place. Only five different drivers won races, with a Riverhead driver winning the two Riverhead races. No surprise there. I don’t see how people can say there are 15 cars that can win at any race. The season results show much differently.
Earlier in the season, NASCAR took the engines from the two fastest SPEC motor cars and tested them. Nothing ever happened, or at least nothing was released. Instead of benchmarking the two engines from the two fastest SPEC motor cars, NASCAR should survey the middle of the pack SPEC motors and the top SPEC motors to find out why there is such a broad spread in performance. Instead, NASCAR benchmarked the top SPEC engines are are effectively telling the rest to catch up. Shouldn’t have to do that with the SPEC engine.
The SPEC motor is just horrible. There is far less parity now than when the field was 100% built motors. Sadly, carburetors were not looked at in post tech these last two races. If there is any time carbs need to be checked, under these conditions, would be the last five races. The carbs need to be very closely examined. And only the top teams can afford the SPEC motor, so parity will only get worse. SPEC motors are glorified crate motors and are to be identical, but they aren’t. The SPEC cams need to be examined. Clearly, some SPEC motors are putting out more horsepower than others.
It looks like there needs to be two Mod Tour series, one for built motors and one for SPEC motors. NASCAR needs to do plenty of work over the winter to fix this mess. I expect very few cars next season, the built motor cars have no chance of competing with the SPEC motor cars and will probably go to another series or shut down.
For those fanboys of LFR, why aren’t all the LFR cars choking the top of the standings? The top cars are an LFR and then Troyers. Where are all those LFR cars? Looks like the first place LFR got lucky and was mated with a superb SPEC motor. Remember, a really good motor can make an inferior chassis look good. But not the other way around. The house LFR car was never competitive.
It is what it is. And that means it isn’t what it should be.
I’m a long time Modified fan, and this just isn’t enjoyable anymore.
Too bad Coby had to wreck the points leaders the other week to win. Enjoy that dirty tainted championship, Doug.
Andy Boright, I feel the same way regarding the management at TSMP. The young men at the gate are beyond rude and extremely unhelpful. I miss the old days at the track when the nice, old guys (you know, the guys who loved short track racing) worked the pit gate and gave everyone a friendly smile.
I Just Can’t Even: Grow up… I’ve got two kids under the age of 7 that whine less than you do.
darealgoodfella : “For those fanboys of LFR, why aren’t all the LFR cars choking the top of the standings?” Don’t think Doug’s car is like everyone else’s LFR cause, it isn’t. It has nothing to do with motor. Also, if you paid real attention to qualifying, you would have picked on Doug’s way of driving. It was pretty obvious listening to the exhaust note that it was far different than everyone else’s.
I just can’t get over how much the posters on this page like to speculate their own hypothesis about what is and what isn’t. If you really want answers, go to the track get in the pits and talk to some of the guys. They don’t hide in the trailer all day so get an answer from the horses mouth instead of pulling it out of your hind quarters. If you spent time in the pits and just overheard a few things, you’d be surprised what you can find out. Looking at the cars helps too if you have a clue of what you are looking at to begin with. You can do these things or just continue to spray forth your accusations and conjecture.
The real story of this race was Woody and the performance of Timmy Solomito. Pitkat came from the back to finish in the top 5 and drove one hell of a race. Solomito also drove his pants off.
TSMP had a mere 2$ discount for seniors and military, disgusting and completely disrespectful. I stood in line shaking my head, I can’t believe the greed of these PIGS. It’s clear to me that they hate short track racing people.
Grey Matter – I get it, you’re a fan of Doug’s. It doesn’t change the fact that he won the whole thing thanks to his dirty move in New Hampshire. For that, I’ll never view him the same. Call me a whiner, whatever. I tell it like it is. Despite all the trophies, there is a reason Coby isn’t the one getting phone calls to start in the big shows. Enjoy.
Grey Matter says:
“Don’t think Doug’s car is like everyone else’s LFR cause, it isn’t. It has nothing to do with motor. Also, if you paid real attention to qualifying, you would have picked on Doug’s way of driving. It was pretty obvious listening to the exhaust note that it was far different than everyone else’s.”
Grey Matter, are you dumb, nuts, or both?
You said, “It has nothing to do with motor.”
And then you said, “It was pretty obvious listening to the exhaust note that it was far different than everyone else’s.”
So you say it has nothing to do with the motor, but the motor was far different than everyone else’s.
LOL!!!!!
So these are spec engines, everything should be the same. It’s a glorified crate motor. So if the 2 car had an exhaust tone that was so very different than all the other SPEC engines, what do you think caused that? Carb? Oh, what about the cam? Both? LOL!!!! Grey Matter, ALL SPEC engines had BETTER sound identical!!!! If one doesn’t, then it ain’t compliant with the SPECIFICATIONS.
Thanks for bringing that to the attention of those that were previously unaware.
Can’t wait until next year. People should be excited for the tour. There is new money coming in with the help of Dunleavy, the new LFR chassis, Troyer with a new chassis instead of just concentrating on dirt cars, and the NBCSN TV deal. All of the cars had sponsors on the side instead of blank sheet metal. I think there is some good momentum especially if the TV deal continues.
But people need to come to grip with the fact that either Coby or Preece are going win the championship next year with outside threats from Woody or Bonsignore. They are the two best drivers in the two best cars. Makes for a great rivalry to watch.
Had an excellent time at Thompson. Every one was very nice and polite from camper registration to the golf course. The road course does complicate things though but I got out easy with my camper through the clubhouse parking lot. The hay ride on Sunday through the pits was a big hit for my daughter which makes it a big hit for me
But the real story is TC… he hasn’t won since 2011. That’s a long time. Needs two wins to tie The Reg, three wins to take over second place overall behind Stefanik. He was on a roll, then all of a sudden, the wins stopped.
All the LFR cars? There were 2 LFR cars at every mod race this year. The house car you speak of just finished 4th at Loudon I believe. And to say that the 2 car is completely different shows how many cars you have worked on. There’s only so much you can do to those cars. Is the 88 the same as the 6? Who cares? The better chassis won the war big time. Get over it. Can’t tell you about the motor but I’m pretty sure nascar can. I’m pretty sure the talking in the garage area should be along the lines of “wow, we just got smoked!”
Grey Matter, this is a perfect demonstration of what an exceptional engine (including the carburetor) can do for a non-exceptional chassis.
Where did the next LFR chassis finish in the points?
I would not say i am trolling…I comment on here quite a bit and go to Waterford and Stafford several times a year. Stopped going to Thompson years ago based on prices and the way they handled the Michalski incident in the pits where they beat up another driver (where they Michalsi back in to race again the next year i believe.)
I will correct my self though, in that i did not give credit to the 51 team for winning twice at the driver’s home track. Plus Szegedy got the win earlier in NH in the year. But in the end it was
I still “follow” the mods – whether it be SKs, SKLs, tour type open shows, etc. My perspective in the WMT is that year over year it comes down to Coby and Preece it seems, and you get so many repeat winners at the same tracks it seems, year in and year out, that it’s almost predictable.
I’d love to see the series not go to the same tracks 3 and 4 times a season, but the WMT just can not seem to avoid that. As it is, there were only 12 drivers that started all 15 races this year, and 2 of those were rookies. Twelve!
One of the drivers said it earlier in the year (I do not recall who it was), but that if you really want to prove your a good driver, show your talent, compete against the best and not have “double stacker haluers -type money” be the driving force?. The Stafford SK field was the most talented field by far to do that in.
When was the last time Coby won in an SK? I think it was when he subbed for Rocco at Waterford one night. Before that? Who knows.
For those of that recall the old IROC days, yeah, it would be neat to still strap drivers in the equally prepared cars, go to differnt types of tracks, and see who’s the best of the best. While we do not have that today (though, I’ll tell ya, these SK Light races are quite entertaining at most tracks, especially SMS), the WMT is the farthest thing from that.
Congrats to the MSIII team. It’s not like they cheated or took out other drivers. But when they show Coby up at the podium in Charlotte, they’ll be a lot of booing when they show the 2 taking out the 6 on the last lap at NH. Championships should not be decided like that.
The blonde in the ticket booth was hot at Thompson. As far as the tour it may need some help it maybe losing a few cars over the off season
Well?
How many LFR cars ran the Tour?
There’s the 2, the 8, and the LFR house car.
How many others?
Grey Matter, the 2 LFR chassis is different from what????? They all think they have the secret sauce.
The massive traffic jam to leave was a good sign of the healthy crowd. The track has no other option but that little road. Deal with it, and be thankful there was traffic. Don’t make like you are a victim and somebody caused all that traffic to annoy you.
I don’t know why everyone is getting so worked up RELAX !! I had a great day yesterday.Hung out @ the track with my race friends ,ate some great sleeeezy track pizza,watched it snow and had a day of racing.Isnt that what it is about ????? Hey Shawn it is Chris from NH looked to chat with you yesterday but never ran into you… Keep up the good work
People should just say that Coby has a cheated up spec motor instead beating around the bush. If sure Nascar looking the other way. I mean the team that finished second in points only owns a Nascar sanctioned track. Nascar would never listen to them about anything since they were the first team to win with a spec motor.
Nascar never gives penalties for pushing the leader out of the away in its touring divisions. Like yesterday in the Cup race.
Where was the 93 and the 3?
The annual attrition started already.
The car counts were pumped up this season by the rather large influx of Riverhead cars. Those cars do not run the SPEC motor. Does not make sense for them to buy new built motors for their own little world when the built motors have been obsoleted by the SPEC motor, but it is quite a commitment to buy SPEC motors to run a local track, with a few excursions on the Tour. It will be interesting to see what these Riverhead cars do next season and motor-wise, and how many will foray out on to the Tour.
I can see the Riverhead cars stop Touring, and the built motor cars going to VMRS, or storage, or sold off. The Tour in 2016 will have very few cars, but they will have SPEC motors.
darealgoodfella: You’re a complete moron. Please reread what I what I wrote and get back to me. It clearly states my comment was about Doug’s driving style and not the motor. Please use your eyes and not your mind.. wait, neither one of them seem work well so never mind.
darealgoodfella, There are 2 LFR chassis on the tour. The 2 car had 1 win and no poles last year and changed manufacturers and you are obviously well aware of the outcome by now. So the Spafco chassis are junk because the 01 gets lapped every 6 laps then? Troyes aren’t any good because the 33 car runs last every week? Come on man. All the manufactures have their plusses and minuses. They each have their top teams as well. The 6 and 88 are on one team and the 51 seams to have their car running well so are they different? One manufacturer had only 2 cars in every event, won 7 races, 7 poles, and the championship. I love facts man and these are them. Deal with it. Every dog has its day and its the new dog in town this year. Doug is a great driver, the crew is great, the motors are great and the chassis was great. Your theories are, lets just say, not so great. Don’t be so spiteful man. Give credit where credit is due and when you get beat and go back to work. That is what makes competition great. You could always get off your computer, build a car (not LFR btw) buy a motor (cheated up that Nascar wont catch) a hauler, pit box, find a driver, a team (hopefully that shares your off the wall theories) crew chief (hopefully a LOT smarter than you) a owner/sponsor (maybe that Jessie Venturer guy that had that show Conspiracy Theory. That sounds like a great team name for you too) and give it a whirl man. Just make sure to run a Southern race so I can witness that mess. That would sell tickets! Hahahahaha.
I remember another guy who won all the time. Drove an orange 61… I guess we are all lucky that was before the internet. Apparently we have to hate on teams that win. Coby digs the hate though so hate on people.
Does anyone know which cars still ran a built motor? They always used to say on the live updates from NASCAR hometracks how many cars in the field were spec and how many were built but now they don’t. Whenever I ask they don’t answer. So does anyone here know?
” Apparently we have to hate on teams that win.”
Always! I’ve seen it all my life at all levels of motorsports. Anyone who wins regularily is cheating or getting a “wink” from the officials…
It’s just weird.
LFR had two house cars. Lajoie also ran a few races and did nothing with it.
NH Mark says: “Apparently we have to hate on teams that win.”
Well, when the 36 was winning a bunch, there was plenty of rumbling until it was a darn near riot, then magically the 36 was found to have a HUGE carburetor. After that, the 36 was nothing.
And the 7NY was winning just about everything it entered, until it was found to have a very deliberate and elaborate method to help the motor breathe. That 7NY has been a big fat nothing since then.
See the correlation?
Where there’s fire, there’s smoke.
It appears to be complete deliberate ignorance that NASCAR did not post tech carbs the last two races. And cam timing needs to be checked all the time. And cam grind/valve lift and timing. Carbs and cam are what differentiate these SPEC motors amongst themselves and NASCAR is making sure they never see anything.
Time wounds all heels.
Grey Matter, foot to the floor exhaust tone is foot to the floor exhaust tone. Even at idle in the pits the 2 is a very gnarly sounding motor. Nothing like the cars around it, that all had SPEC motors.
I agree with you, the 2 motor sounds very different from all the other SPEC motors. That has NOTHING to do with driving technique. To what do you attribute that tonality difference? Carb? Cam reground? Cam timing? Combination?
Are you an illusionist? You keep pointing to the chassis when the chassis is doing nothing. If the chassis was that good, EVERY team would have junked their cars for LFRs by now. And that ain’t happening.
Congrats to Doug and the team. Toms team and Justins team got there cars right jut because Preece didn’t get over it Woody had a good car but got in the wreck and set him back the best team of the day won get over it.
darealgoodfella: It has nothing to do with the exhaust note at all. His motor sounds no different than Goodale’s, Preece’s or the 22 car. It was in throttle control/driving style. I’ve been trying to get the point across about how he drives. In time trials, it was completely different than everyone else.
The #2 car isn’t fast because he has some stupid carb on it or more power than everyone else. Often, a car gets a finger pointed at it when it handles well and make it look like it has 20 more horse than everyone else when it’s just not the case. Doug and Phil are the 20 extra horsepower because they work together extremely well.
Grey Matter, of course the way the car is driven is different when it has a bunch more horsepower. OF COURSE!!!! Cars that have a ton of HP have to get out of the gas, cars that don’t have a ton of horsepower can stay in the gas. doh.
But the foot-to-the-floor tone is different from all the other SPEC motors. I continue to be surprised by these SPEC motors and how they sound different from one another, given that they are SPEC motors and should be identical. You know, identical induction systems, including the cam. When the field was all built motors, different tonality was expected, and I found it intriguing. There were a couple builders that had very distinct tonality. With a field of SPEC motors, it should be a massive amount of the same tone. BUT IT ISN’T!!!!! When the cars were coming down the backstretch and had some distance between them, I could tell the difference in tonality, and that tonality difference was confirmed as each one backed out of the gas and that car’s unique tone went away.
Parity amongst the SPEC motors has been a problem, and continues to be a problem.
darealgoodfella : All it takes to make it sound different is moving the direction of the turnout after the muffler or new mufflers compared to used ones. The only real difference in the sound is based upon the speed of the car.
No matter what happens, whether it be a built or spec motor, there will never be two motors alike. This rings true for crate motor divisions as well. It doesn’t matter who builds them or the parts included. they will never be “alike”.
Hey Mark, when the 36 and 7NY were driving over the field with the big carb and opportunistic air path leaks, I was screaming that there’s smoke over there, and it took a very long time for the fire to be found. A couple seasons for the 7NY. I was right then too. I think it was these forums where I was saying that NASCAR was making themselves look silly by letting it go on and not looking hard enough to put a stop to it. Back then, it was the built motor, so it wasn’t hard to find. Just look in the path from the intake valve to the air horn of the carburetor. That’s where both problems were found. Many people didn’t want to read it, and were very loyal to the 36 and 7NY, but it had to happen.
It was what it was. It is what it is. And it wasn’t then and still isn’t the way it is supposed to be.
I wonder what the reason is that Coby won the other two championships. He didnt hav the LFR or a spec motor then. Oh maybe it was because he can drive. SMH
Let me say this first … I am a Ryan Preece fan. Think he’s got a ton of potential, and I hope that his runs with TBR open some more doors for him.
Now, as to the rest of this horse hockey, Great drama and excitement in the tour. So to all of you keyboard jockeys, why, again, should NASCAR change what they are doing from a competition standpoint? Are there inconsistencies in the calls? Sure are, and always have been. Are there some motors that are better than others? Sure are, and always have been. Is racing too expensive, and the rules causing owners to spend more money? Sure is, always has been. Drivers that take advantage of owners or screw up and ruin opportunities? Gee, never seen that happen before.
Congrats to Doug and the 2 team. They understood what they were dealing with, took advantage of the opportunities that they saw, ended up on top. Do I like it? Nope, but I’m still gonna go next year to watch it happen again, because it is interesting.
And before anyone starts to rip me a new one, just remember, This is called an opinion, and everyone has one. Respect mine, and I’ll respect yours.
RichC says: “So to all of you keyboard jockeys, why, again, should NASCAR change what they are doing from a competition standpoint?”
Because quality owners are leaving, and aren’t being replaced with quality owners. And by quality, I mean owners that are going to compete, not just participate. Owners that are in it to compete the whole season.
This is looking like an opportunity to buy some pretty impressive racing equipment this off season. Plenty will be for sale.
RichC says, ” Are there some motors that are better than others? Sure are, and always have been.”
With built motors, yeah. These are SPEC motors. They were supposed to be affordable and equal. Didn’t happen.
RichC says: “Is racing too expensive, and the rules causing owners to spend more money? Sure is, always has been.” Running the Tour is expensive, purses are shrinking. Did NASCAR make it better? No. Did NASCAR reduce its fees, licensing, etc? Nope. NASCAR came up with the unaffordable SPEC motor that is expensive and does not establish parity.
So RichC, do you see why quality owners are leaving?
dareal – Sure I understand. I understood before you took it upon yourself to educate me. My point is that quality car owners have been coming and going since 1894 when the first two dummies with cars decided to see who was faster. Everyone said that spec chassis would kill auto racing. It didn’t. Now everyone says that spec motors will kill auto racing. It won’t. Not saying that everything’s rosy, it isn’t. But come on already. Nothing has changed other than what has changed. So give it a rest already.
RichC, somebody on this thread or another mentioned that it just hasn’t been fun. Many years ago, the teams would hang out after a race, and socialize. Have fun. Now, they pack up as fast as possible and get out of the track.
Something is not right. What is causing all the disgruntled emotions? It has to be talked about and in the open, otherwise it just festers.
What RichC said. I agree completely.