Fast-forward to 2013, and the reigning
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion has become entrenched not only
as a fixture on the Tour but also as one of the insightful voices
among a small handful of active champions.
Coby's abilities – and his
personality – seem well suited to the Little Engine That Could team
owned by Wayne Darling.
“Once you're comfortable in your own
skin, with your own team, you can have a lot more fun with it,”
said Coby, whose father was a Modified driver at Riverside Park and
Stafford Speedway a generation ago. “It's really pretty funny,
because I always joke with (multi-time Tour champion) Mike Stefanik
now. He came to all our quarter-midget banquets as a guest speaker
when I was a kid. Now he tells me that I'm the one who's going to be
going to those quarter-midget banquets.”
It was a strange path to Modified
success for Coby. While fellow Tour champions like Ron Silk or Todd
Szegedy grew up racing go-karts and then graduated into Modifieds,
Coby started out in full-bodied stock cars. He won the final Pro
Stock championship at Stafford in 2000, and then found himself
searching for what was next.


