Support System: Doug Coby Introduces Major Sponsor For Whelen Mod Tour Ride In 2017

On Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. NASCAR Whelen Modified Driver Doug Coby was celebrated for capturing his third straight series championship and fourth title overall with the division.

And in the midst of that celebration Coby revealed that his chase for another title in 2017 will come with the backing of new major sponsor with his Mike Smeriglio Racing organization.

Coby, of Milford, announced during his champion’s speech at Saturday’s Night of Champions Touring Awards banquet at the NASCAR Hall of Fame that Mayhew Steel Products of Turners Falls, Mass. will join the team the primary sponsor. 

Dunleavy Truck & Trailer will remain as a sponsor with the team also.

Mayhew Steel Products had served as an associate sponsor the Bob Garbarino owned Mystic Missile Whelen Modified Tour team.

“We’re obviously really excited to bring Mayhew into our team as we try to chase four championships in a row,” Coby said. “We feel like we have a great brand to pair up with their great brand. They’re an industry leader in their field and they feel like we’re the industry leader in our field, so it was a natural fit for the two of us to come together.”

In 2016 Coby became the first driver since the inception of the Whelen Modified Tour in 1985 win three consecutive titles. He won his first championship in 2012 driving for team owner Wayne Darling. He was second in the standings to Ryan Preece in 2013 before winning the last three titles with the Mike Smeriglio owned team.

“We’re really excited to win some races with Mayhew’s logo on our car and really get them more involved in the automotive side of their business,” Coby said. “They do industrial products and automotive products and they’ve made it pretty clear that they would like to get some more traction among the automotive consumers and the race fans and race team members. It’s a great fit for everybody involved and we’re really excited to move”

Comments

  1. Oh great…

  2. good bye BOB #4 thanks for all the years of good racing. put a fork in it!

  3. Doesn’t Bob still have Starrett or did someone take that too?

  4. crazy larry says

    Joe K , I believe that sponsorship came with Jimmy if i recall,That’s why TC didn’t get the ride!! Big mistake by Bob. And Bob is crying again this year! Squeaky wheel gets the grease !!!!!!

  5. Eye in the sky says

    Some facts (at least I see them as facts) , Bob is a grouch, surly and possibly miserable to deal with at times. Starrett is a major, big time company that wanted to get involved with NASCAR racing. Obviously, the same applied to Mayhew in 2016, but on a smaller scale.
    Do you think for a minute that those folks didn’t wonder why the four car had a truck / hauler from 1973 to represent their brand? Then they look around the pits and almost every single team has a tractor trailer with a real “NASCAR style” hauler to meet sponsors and the people they bring to the track in? They then ask, what’s our money getting us? Jimmy was a great guy to reach out to sponsors with, but you can’t look like the Sanford and Son of the Tour while doing it.
    The two car has been a first class, top notch race team since day one, period. That is the number one team on tour every single year when it comes to being operated as a professional team. Smeriglio operates that team as a business! not as a fun thing to do on the side when you’re done for the day running your own business. He’s a super sharp business man who deals with numbers and budgets every day that has successfully became the number one “businessman” in modified racing.
    He has the absolute best manager / crew chief, the best driver (some will debate this, oh well) and a laundry list of past and present national level sponsors funding the operation. They look and act professional, they keep their shirts tucked in, no one acts like a fool at the track. No one calls anybody “Donny diarreaha “.
    There are definitely wealthier team owners out there (Chris Our was one) like Massa and Partridge, but they use these teams as a plaything, paid for out if their own pockets or business account. Not the same as treating the team as a business. So no one should be surprised when the two car does the same thing next year.

  6. anyone who insults a class act like bob garbarino is a clueless moron
    cant think of an active owner who has committed more time, resources and offered more drivers opportunities. I wouldn’t`t blame him if he closes up shop and gets out of racing for good. NASCAR has ruined the tour,driven the cost up so high its a joke . I wont speak for him but I believe he was committed to running the tour due to his love for modified racing period ..again wouldn’t`t blame him if he calls it quits . anyone who judges a team by its hauler just confirms they are a moron.

  7. So, with all that said. Is Starrett leaving the 4 and sponsoring Jimmy with his own team or are they going somewhere else? It would be a shame to loose them as a sponsor on the tour after just one season.

  8. darealgoodfella says

    Okay… y’all crossed my line. DON’T EVER MAKE FUN OF THE MYSTIC MISSILE HAULER… EVER. That hauler is iconic, it represents small track modified racing. While the rest of you boys are obsessed with size. There is no need for double stack haulers in modified racing unless you have an inferiority problem and need to overcompensate.

    Poaching sponsors is pretty low.

    The Starrett sponsorship was a v4 deal, not a Blewett sponsor brought to the v4 by the driver.

    I’ve been around modified racing since the days when Evans, Spencer, Bodine all hauled with rigs a little spiffier than what Wade Cole uses, maybe had a sleeper behind the cabin. The v4 hauler is right-sized, and the icon of the Tour. Are we racing haulers?

  9. I don’t think anyone was judging the team by their hauler. I think what was meant was that when you ask very large, national and international companies to invest in your race team, you may not want your appearance to be exactly like the street stock team at the same track.
    Time moves on and his old school approach and tiresome complaining has run its course.

  10. Liz Cherokee says

    Are we racing cars or haulers? I doubt I would win any more cases in the courtroom if I wore Oscar De La Renta instead of my traditional Nina McLemore duds… They look and work just fine!
    And BTW, I would work pro bono publico for Lamont and Fred anytime!

  11. “Eye in the sky”,nothing brings on the excitement of classic modified racing than seeing the #4 Garbarino Hauler out on the road.Take all of your B.S. real “Nascar style” haulers and jump in a lake.Gee whiz,I wonder how “Old Blue” ever won a race with its patina finish riding to the track on an old school hauler.That hauler is living history.

  12. darealgoodfella says

    What he said… 450mike that is… the Mystic Missile and Ol’ Blue are the cars that represent what short track modified racing is all about. They are the remaining original teams.

  13. speed kills says

    EITS and Roger …didn`t need a big hauler or sponsor to win a mod championship…(mystic missile) ..some morons are just fair weather fans .. once the 2 starts to have some bad luck they will jump on the next bandwagon … or run to buy a new t shirt .. you don`t know about real grass roots racing.. go sit in the half empty stands at a cup race with your corporate t shirt !

  14. darealgoodfella says

    roger said: “I think what was meant was that when you ask very large, national and international companies to invest in your race team, you may not want your appearance to be exactly like the street stock team at the same track.”

    What very large national and international companies are sponsoring NWMT teams? Go ahead, list all of them.

  15. Facts Matter says

    Its fun to live in the past and maybe those times were better but its going to be 2017 life and the world changes and so does racing maybe not for the better but it is what it is if you want BIG MONEY you have to have a BIG hauler deal with it.

  16. darealgoodfella says

    Facts Matter said: ” …if you want BIG MONEY you have to have a BIG hauler deal with it.”

    Please explain that.

  17. More people will see the sponsor’s name on the side of the hauler going up and down highway than on the car at the track. It is a giant billboard. The V4 hauler may look iconic to people at the track, it just looks old the everyone else who know nothing about racing.

  18. Lets not forget,we are racing for $ 2,500 bucks here.A $ 250,000 hauler is nothing more than a statement.Look how Tony hirshman won his last championship.A Ford Expetition and a 28 ft enclosed trailer.Spare motor in the back of the truck.Puin the car.t the $$$$$

  19. Woops. Put the $$$$$ in the car.lol

  20. It’s not the size of the hauler that matters, it’s what you do with what’s inside it that counts!! A big new hauler may impress some potential sponsors, but so will good race performances.

  21. I don’t often agree with darealgoodfella, but when I do it’s b/c the Mystic Missile’s hauler IS iconic.

  22. Who cares about a hauler iconic or not.Isn’t this starting to get stupid?He will get a new hauler when he feels like.How would folks know that Starrett was ashamed of the hauler?My supplier did some indy racing years back.They had a hauler just for the hospitality tent.They entertained and fed 75 people just like every other team.If Liz stopped by they woulda got out the crystal and served her bubbly. Thats a different animal than modified racing.If you don’t like the mud,the blood,and the beer stay home.

  23. darealgoodfella says

    3Case, stay racy my friend.

  24. darealgoodfella says

    Well, it’s good thing Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair is a modified sponsor, to appeal to all those overcompensating double stack “NASCAR style” hauler operators.

  25. Everyone is saying the same thing but arguing the point. The 4 hauler is iconic, yes. What’s in the big hauler? The 2 car, which has won a lot the last few years. Maybe the sponsor chose to go with the 2 because of that? Don’t be angry, probably just a business decision. Let’s hope more sponsors come aboard and push the tour to a better place instead of complaining about what is already done.

  26. Bob has been around for a long time and doesn’t deserve the crap some of you idiots are saying. Bob puts his money into his equipment not his hauler. And this crap about “oh this 2017: yeah it is but the payouts are like the 80’s and 90’s. if your lucky you get 5 to 10 grand to win and you expect teams to waste money on fancy trailers. The modifieds would be better off running weakly at the local tracks….were they belong because nobody is really promoting them

  27. I have been around a few years and would like to take those who are new to the game. Back many years ago a team from MA won the Race of Champions when it was run at the big track in Trenton NJ. That day the car was three different colors and I was sitting with a group of people who were laughing at the number 3 and I told them watch that car if does run fast and the driver is a winner. Yes the car was the owned by Len Boehler and it was not the best looking car in the race but it was the fastest that day. I remember standing in the pits with Len and the team when someone walked up and said when are you going to paint the car and his answer was when paint makes it go faster. The point the race car doesn’t know how it gets to the track and the nice haulers don’t make a difference when it comes to speed and winning. The heart of a sponsor is the team and the way they handle themselves and the 4 team has always been first class and the reason is Bob has always been a first class person. I know more about this man and his family than most. In my time of need and support Bob’s door was open he helped me get through some hard times in my life. That was many years ago but something I will carry with me to the day I die. Sorry but please stop throwing a fist class person under the bus their is more to the person than most know.

  28. Dave main I have never seen a car hauler win 3 championships before, has anybody else? Bob and Joan are wonderful people and love modified racing!

  29. I have never seen a car hauler win 3 championships before, has anybody else? Bob and Joan are wonderful people and love modified racing!

  30. Bob M., loved the story! Kudos to all the “old school” and “low buck” teams who can still put their money where their racecar is! It’s easy to get on the band wagon with a “big budget” team, but you HAVE to appreciate and respect anyone that’s out there doing the best they can with what they have, particularly the ones who have been out there for years!

  31. darealgoodfella says

    Eye in the sky said: “Smeriglio operates that team as a business! not as a fun thing to do on the side when you’re done for the day running your own business.”

    You do understand that a business makes money?

    First place pays about $3,000 if lucky. If a car wins all races, that’s winnings of $45,000. That is just about a tire bill for the season, and only tires. There are many more expenses besides tires. Engine maintenance, overhauls, gas, repairs, reconfiguring the car for each track, etc. The point fund is a couple hundred thousand dollars divided up amongst all teams, so that’s a few thousand more if the car wins the championship. MSR has full time employee(s) working on the car. Considering all employment insurances, etc., that’s over one hundred thousand dollars per year per employee. The costs of running the shop/garage. And throw overhead on top of that. I could go on and on, but the arithmetic already shows that MSR is just another plaything. The MSRIII operation is no different than the teams you mentioned: “There are definitely wealthier team owners out there (Chris Our was one) like Massa and Partridge, but they use these teams as a plaything, paid for out if their own pockets or business account. Not the same as treating the team as a business.”

    What other racing income does MSR have? You think Dunleavy is paying MSR several hundred thousand dollars per season, several times more than winnings and points payout, for the honor of sponsoring the 2 to make the MSR operation profitable? LOL!!!!

    If Modified Racing was such a money maker, there would be hundreds of cars showing up at each event!!!!! LOL!!!! How the enterprise is operated will not make money where there is no money to be made.

    Want to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large fortune.

    Poaching sponsors is very bad. If the competition is now no longer exclusively on the racing surface and competition happens in the pits and elsewhere, including sponsor poaching, then that could be the demise of modified racing. What owner wants to go through the effort of courting a sponsor to then have another owner poach it? The series and ALL owners need to bring in sponsorship.

  32. Maybe Mayhew approached the 2?

  33. Jerry Fascione says

    Great story “Bob M” thank you for sharing, like I said Bob is a guy who has modified racing running in his veins he loves racing and has been doing it with success for more years then anybody else out there. Enough of this poison you idiots write on this site. You guys call him a crybaby for speaking his mind about the sport, Eddie Flemke wasn’t afraid to speak his mind about the modifieds and Richie Evans did the same he would call Nascar and speak his mind but I guess they were cry babies too.

  34. People can sponsor who ever they choose. poaching someone’s sponsor is bad. We sponsored a lot of the younger drivers because the next generation keeps the sport going. This year we are adding Jacob Perry another great young driver to our team. good luck to the #4 team.

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