Lia Did Not Intend to Wreck Coby But Takes Responsibility for Outcome
For 290 laps at Thompson International Speedway (CT), Donny Lia’s race was a good one. Lia overcame carburetor problems before the race started to come through the pack and battle for the lead with just a few laps remaining. He had Ted Christopher in front of him and Doug Coby behind him as the race neared its 300-lap conclusion.
But things soured near the end for both Lia and Coby. There was hard racing, contact and hurt feelings at first. Then things got even more messy as the two drivers made contact under caution. The result was an incident that left Coby angry with a bent racecar and Lia regretful and also with a penalty that ended his race. Lia knows he is responsible for what happened, but the end result was not what he intended.
It all started with a battle for the second position.
“There were 20 laps to go and we had a shot to win the Thompson 300, one of the most prestigious races in the Modifieds” said Lia. “I was trying to run Teddy down and we were going to have a great race with him and Doug Coby. The whole time, Doug was a couple of car lengths back and hanging in there. The caution came out and on the restart, I got a good restart on Teddy and was on his bumper going into turn one. My spotter started screaming that Doug dove-bomb me on the bottom. I could see him in my peripheral vision coming up the racetrack right at me. It’s something that I’ve seen 100 times from him and other guys.”
“Three times, he ran me up. That last time, he tried a slide job and I was there. There were sparks and banging. It might have been hard to see it from the stands, but we were grinding all the way through the corner. He was using me to try and turn (his car). I was trying not to get into the fence and it knocked my toe off an inch-and-a-half. My car was undriveable. It darted all over the racetrack.”
A caution flag flew at the same time for an unrelated incident. That was when NASCAR moved Lia back to second spot, but as Lia was moving forward to that spot, he made contact with Coby’s #77, which in turn went straight into the frontstretch wall. Coby’s right-front suspension was heavily damaged and he was finished for the day.
Donny races with Mike Stefanik at Thompson. (Mary Hodge Photo)
“What people don’t know is that when the caution came out, NASCAR had instructed me to go back by the #77. I guess he had not gotten all of the way around me before the yellow came out. I would have never even pulled up alongside of him if I didn’t have to get to second place and get my spot back.”
Lia admits that he made a poor decision that led to Coby’s incident, but his intent was not to actually wreck Coby.
“I wasn’t flipping out mad. I just wanted to send him a message in the same way I’ve seen 100 other drivers do. I wanted to give him a little tap or rub him as if to say that I wasn’t happy with what he was doing. That’s all that I wanted to do. It just went bad. I went to go rub him and I guess that I did it wrong or he came down
scrubbing his tires; I don’t know. I didn’t feel a hard hit, but it was enough to shoot him to the right. He ended up in the fence and I asked my crew ‘What just happened?’ My spotter came over the radio and said that I just wrecked him and I was wondering how. I didn’t want to do that.”
After two caution laps Lia was met by a NASCAR official who pointed him to the pits. No black flag was actually displayed, but Lia went directly behind the wall and got out of his car. He knew that he was done for the day.
“Anyone who wrecks somebody under caution deserves to be parked for the race. I got what I deserved. If it’s a racing deal and there’s some question as to who is at fault, a one-or two-lap penalty is fine. I deserved to be taken out of the race for what happened, but it certainly was not intentional.
Donny and the team looks over the car before the race.
“I didn’t argue with them or plead my case; I just drove it behind the wall. I knew how wrong it was. I didn’t mean to put him in the wall, but he ended up there because of what I did. There was nobody more dejected after the race than me. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could be alone and think about what happened.
“I was sick to my stomach about it and a day later, I still am. It’s not what I wanted. It wasn’t my intention. I didn’t like the way that he treated me on the racetrack and that was it. I feel bad about what happened and if I wanted him to be in the fence and wrecked, I wouldn’t feel bad about it now. That isn’t what I wanted to do.”
Looking back on the incident, Lia is sorry about the repercussions of the incident.
“I apologize to Doug; he was out there driving his heart out. I especially apologize to the Chases (team owners) for the car that I wrecked. They are having to fix that car now. And I apologize to the fans in the grandstands because I let them down and they didn’t see the good finish they were going to witness.
“I know that they were cheering for me; I could hear them as I was coming up through the pack. I let them down. I got booed. Teddy (Christopher) gets booed and he doesn’t care. I wouldn’t either if I got booed because I won 100 SK races and a ton of Tour races. They boo him because he wins so much. But I got booed off the racetrack and they weren’t booing me for winning. They were booing me because I wrecked a guy. That’s not the way that I drive or what Donny Lia is all about.
“I know that I’m going to get a lot of heat for this and I know that I look like such a bad guy. So many people came up to me after the race and asked me what I did and told me that I was better than that. I am. What happened in the end wasn’t meant to happen and now everyone who is mad at me knows my side.”
For more information on Donny and the team, please contact Matthew Dillner at (704) 231-7613 and be sure to visit DonnyLia.com.
Donny took responsibilty for the accident that took out Doug Coby. (Howie Hodge Photo)
