Irwindale, CA (October 23, 2006): Matt Kobyluck wheeled his No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet to the lead in the Grand National Division portion of the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway for the third and final time on a restart at lap 140 before soaring to one of the biggest wins of his career and his highest-ever paying purse at $30,000.

“The car was awesome on the high side,” Kobyluck said. “There was no way I was losing that race. I drove my butt off those last five or ten laps. This is the biggest win of my career. I’ve won at superspeedways like Dover and Nazareth, and I’ve won on the short tracks and road courses. But when you can compete against the top 29 teams in the Grand National division, you know you’ve beaten the best NASCAR has to offer.”

Kobyluck finished third in his qualifying race the night before after using the 50-lap dash as a mini “test session” for the Showdown event.

“I was trying to go easy. This doesn’t pay anything so I was just trying to feel all the grooves of the racetrack. I wanted to find out where I was lacking. It was the first time I’d been on the track (this weekend) at night time so I needed to get a feel for what it did when the sun went down. The track actually freed up a little bit, which I was surprised about. The car was pretty much the same whether I ran the top, the middle, or the bottom. That means to me that the car is really balanced.”

Kobyluck dropped back to fourth and then moved up to second before the first caution waved in Saturday night’s 150-lap event. AutoZone West Series driver Brian Ickler and Kobyluck paced the field back to green at lap 20 with Kobyluck driving out front on the backstretch. Kobyluck remained out front until lap 69 when Ickler reclaimed the top spot.

Kobyluck was third when the race was stopped for a mandatory ten-minute break. Kobyluck’s team made some adjustments to the Mohegan Sun Chevrolet.

“We lost some ground after about lap 75 so we decided to make a few changes. I wasn’t concerned about it at all,” Kobyluck said after the race. “We adjusted on the track bar and we made a small wedge adjustment. They were minor things, but I knew it was going to be enough to help me on those last 50 laps.”

“This win was not just me,” Kobyluck continued. “It was a whole team deal. I don’t do any prep work on these cars, and I’m fortunate enough to have a group of guys that can really prepare, and if necessary adjust, on a racecar and do it like I would like to have it done if I were doing it myself. I just get the luxury of driving the things they give me.”

When action resumed, Kobyluck drove under Ickler and Tracy Gordon and into the lead, but just as quickly Eric Holmes went under Kobyluck for the point. Before the lap was over, Kobyluck had been shuffled back to third.

By lap 107, Kobyluck was side-by-side with Tracy Gordon for third, but Kobyluck held the advantage by a nose. Caution at lap 118 tightened the field back up with Kobyluck behind Holmes and Sean Caisse. Kobyluck knew, however, that Holmes only had fourth gear.

“You use what you know to win the race – that’s what you’ve got to do. Apparently, the 62 only had fourth gear. We knew because of his problems we were going to go back fast, and we did. We took off like halfway in the middle of three and four because he had to.”

But no sooner than they got going, a spin on lap 136 slowed them down again. This time, though, Kobyluck was second and he would restart the race on his preferred groove – the outside.

I knew at that point that I was going to go to the front because I was so good on the high side,” he explained. “I was crazy in the car because I was on the high side! Once I got out there to the lead I was like ‘that’s it, nobody is getting by me now’.

And no one did. Despite the challenges, Kobyluck held his ground and cruised to the win.

“We came here with our best short track car and with a brand new body and the spec engine. We were coming to win the race. There was nothing else that was going to satisfy me.”