South Boston, VA (May 31, 2008): It appeared as if it was going to be a very long day at South Boston Speedway for the Mohegan Sun Racing team after a practice crash completely destroyed their primary car. A collective effort by the team coupled with a solid race-ready set-up in the #40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet allowed driver Matt Kobyluck to pull off a top-five finish in the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s Strutmasters.com 150.

“It was a scramble no question. Everybody worked really hard today,” said Kobyluck. “We were a small track bar adjustment away from being a contender to win that race.”

But driving a back-up car was only one of the hurdles at South Boston.

The aggressive nature of short track racing was quite evident with the amount of damage to the race cars following the event, which was slowed by 15 caution periods. Kobyluck’s strategy was to survive, and on more than one occasion the Uncasville, Conn.-native came dangerously close to getting caught up in the destruction.

“I survived, and sometimes I went backwards a few positions, but sometimes these kids have got to realize that sometimes you’ve got to go backwards in order to go forwards. You’re not always going to go forward. If someone gets you on a restart then they get you on a restart. You give it up, and eventually, if your car is good enough, you’re going to get it back. That’s what I did all night: I gave up a few positions, took back a few positions, gave up a couple positions, took back a couple positions. At the end of the day, we salvaged a top-five out of it. Our car was honestly a top-10 car, and it proves that a little bit of give and take and trying to avoid any situations on the track can pay off. We just kept working our way forward,” he said.

Kobyluck started 12th, and by the 2nd lap already had damage to the right side of his car. He kept plugging, and stayed out of trouble as he methodically worked his way closer and closer to the front. On lap 128, Kobyluck was racing behind a three-wide battle that got aggressive. Kobyluck backed off and was able to narrowly escape a 16-car pileup in turn three.

“The 71, the 1, and the 99 decided that they wanted to go three-wide down the backstretch and attempt to come into turn three three-wide. I was right behind all of them and I knew they were going to wreck. We were wrecking before they even got down into turn three. They were squeezing down the bottom for real estate and I saw it coming so I just started going high. It was like a slalom through there. I just weaved in and out of it and I made it through. I steered my way through it, and that wasn’t the big deal. The big deal was that it wrecked the entire field behind me.”

After a 29-minute red flag, Kobyluck restarted the race in sixth. He raced up to the fifth position before the race ended under caution at lap 155 – five laps longer than its scheduled distance.

The finish was Kobyluck’s first top-five of the young season, and unofficially moved him to the top-10 in points. For more information on Matt Kobyluck or Mohegan Sun Casino Racing, please visit www.mattkobyluck.com.