MATT KOBYLUCK
THIRD TIME'S A CHARM
EDGE HOTEL 150: Kobyluck prevails at Adirondack International Speedway BLAST FROM PAST: After '04, '05 wins, driver back on top
By CAP CAREY
TIMES SPORTSWRITER
SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2008
NEW BREMEN — Matt Kobyluck snapped a two-year streak of frustration at the Adirondack International Speedway by claiming the NASCAR Camping World Series East Edge Hotel 150 on Saturday night.

Kobyluck, who also won the event in 2004 and 2005, passed Trevor Bayne on a restart on lap 147 and held on to win a wild race that featured a 59-minute rain delay and 12 cautions, which ate up 55 of the laps.

"I wouldn't classify this as one of the best cars I've had here," Kobyluck said. "I had a different strategy to save the right front (tire). Tonight I kind of laid back."

Kobyluck, who has always been one of the most dominant drivers at the track, qualified seventh for the race and had just the fifth-fastest time in practice. He moved into the top five by the third lap, but never led the event until he passed Bayne on the last restart.

"I'm usually never the fastest in practice and I don't get a lot of poles," Kobyluck said.

Kobyluck could have stretched his win streak at the speedway to five if it hadn't been for some unfortunate breaks in the 2006 and 2007 races. He was in a wreck with four laps to go while contending in the 2006 race, and last year, he was leading the race before being black-flagged for jumping a restart with eight laps remaining.

"Last year is last year," Kobyluck said. "I try to put that stuff behind me. I didn't feel the track owed me anything. I came in here feeling we had as good of a shot as last year. This deal is so competitive. Ten different guys every week can win these races."

It was a restart, again, that proved to be the difference for Kobyluck. Bayne, just 17, had led the race for 20 laps before experiencing problems with his carburetor. That caused his car not to give him the jump he needed on the final restart, which came four laps after Craig Goess spun out on turn four to bring out a caution flag.

"It was a tight race and you had to be smart on the restarts, there were so many of them," Bayne said. "Every time you get the green they should have just left the caution out. A lot of people would be happy with a second-place finish, and I am, but as a racer, you want to win."

Shortly after Kobyluck picked up the white flag, there was a five-car crash on turn four, causing the race to end under a caution flag.

Saturday's race also was the latest chapter in a string of frustrations for series veteran Bryon Chew. Chew won the pole with a time of 109.296 mph and dominated the first 37 laps of the race, building a lead of about 10 seconds at one point.

A victim of crashes and bad luck in past races at the speedway, Chew was victimized this time by the skies, as rain began to fall during a caution flag, halting the race after 24 laps for one hour. The race resumed with 13 caution laps to help dry the track, but once it started again, Peyton Sellers moved past Chew on the very first lap, and he never regained the lead.

Chew remained in the top five until spinning out on turn one on the 137th lap of the race and he wound up finishing 12th.

Sellers went on to have problems of his own later in the race. He maintained his lead until the 86th lap when second-place driver Austin Dillon hit him from behind on turn four and spun him. Later in the race, Sellers was forced to move to the back of the field for aggressive driving, and he wound up finishing 10th.

Dillon, who entered the event with a 20-point lead on Kobyluck in the series' standings, kept his lead until the 126th lap, when he and Bayne proceeded to swap the lead on three straight laps. He wound up finishing third.

"It was a good race all-in-all," said Dillon, the grandson of NASCAR car owner Richard Childress. "We had a good race and it's a tight points-battle up front."

Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt, had the second-best time in practice and qualified fifth for the race. He spun out on lap 51, but worked his way back through the field and earned a fifth-place finish.

Boonville native Levi Arthur made his debut in the series and had trouble throughout the day. He was black-flagged during the two-hour practice session because of a car problem, qualified last, but improved to an 18th-place finish.