Doug Coby

4 x Time Champion Driver

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

Owner: Mike Smeriglio III

Valenti Modified Racing Series

Owner: Rick Czarnecki

Northeastern Midget Association

Owner: Bertrand Motorsports

After winning three Quarter Midget national championships, Doug Coby made the jump to stock car racing at Stafford Motor Speedway. He won the 1998 Late Model championship at the track, followed up by a championship in the track’s old Pro Stock division in 2000.

Coby made his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut in 2002 with three starts that season. In 2003, he finished 14th in points after making 15 starts. Jumped to 12th in the standings in 2004. In 2005 he had six top-five finishes and was seventh in the final standings.

In 2006 he won his first Whelen Modified Tour event, capturing the prestigious Sprint Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway. He made 11 starts over the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2009, Coby finished 11th in the standings after starting 11 events. He ran for five different teams in 2010, finishing in the top-10 four of eight starts that year. Read more…

Mike Smeriglio III

Owner

After multiple near misses, Mike Smeriglio III gathered his first title as car owner in 2014, his ninth season fielding an entry for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. It felt so good, he couldn’t let it go.

“You don’t really know what it’s like to be a champion until you come down to Charlotte and celebrate and see your car in the NASCAR Hall of Fame with the championship trophy,” Smeriglio said. “That’s unbelievable. You can’t anticipate that until it actually happens, and when it does, it’s almost a double-edged sword. You got here, but now you want to continue to be here.

Phil Moran

Crew Chief

Long considered one of the elite crew chiefs on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the case for that exclusive status was significantly bolstered in 2016 when Phil Moran added a fourth tour title to his résumé.

Originally from Preston, Connecticut, Moran got his start in NASCAR modified racing in 1985 with car owner Art Barry and driver Greg Sacks. He’s attained varied experience along the way, including his first Whelen Modified Tour title in 2003 with driver Todd Szegedy and car owner Don Barker.

Barker sold his team to Mike Smeriglio III after the 2005 season and Moran went to work for Chassis Dynamics before eventually returning to the tour to work with Szegedy and Smeriglio and manage the team’s shop in Newtown, Connecticut. Read more…..