Doug Coby left furious after frustrating Stafford 150 defeat

For almost the entirety of the Stafford 150, Doug Coby appeared poised for a victory that would have been nothing short of dominant.

Coby led the opening 146 green-flag laps and was in front of second-place Justin Bonsignore by a full straightaway until Joey Cipriano spun in Turn 3 with four laps to go, bringing pit strategy into play.

The Whelen Modified Tour races with a one-tire rule on pit stops at Stafford Motor Speedway. Teams can change three fresh tires throughout the race, but can only change one tire per trip down pit road.

Coby changed all three tires. In the process, however, he lost the lead and lined up sixth for the decisive restart. Despite a late charge over the final two laps, Coby was unable to reclaim the lead, settling for third.

When asked if he was heartbroken during his frontstretch post-race interview, Coby did not mince words.

“I don’t get heartbroken, I get fucking pissed off,” Coby said.

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Coby was especially incensed over Stafford’s one-tire rule, saying teams were given too many chances to change tires before the final restart.

“Stupid fucking rules is what it is. It’s this gimmick, bullshit of this one-tire stop,” Coby said during the post-race press conference. “Why does it take five laps to even go back to green for a single car spin with whatever to go? That’s altering the race. Line us up and go… It’s just dumb.”

The decision itself to take three tires didn’t irk Coby. It’s the rule that does.

“We had to do what we had to do,” he said. “It is what it is… I just think it looks bad for our series that that’s what we have to do to produce a green-white-checker, good finish.”

Coby’s solution to the problem? Implementing the rule used at other tracks, allowing teams to change up to three tires at once.

“Come in. If we’re allowed to change three tires, you change three tires whenever you want,” Coby said. “I don’t get it. It’s very amateur to me to make this Modified tour come in and do one tire per pit stop… This track doesn’t need that. I hate it. I think we’re more professional than that, and I think we should just do three-tire stops.”

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