NASCAR K&N SeriesA tire issue late in the Drive Sober 150 at Dover International Speedway on Friday in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East twelfth race of the season forced a 15th place finish. A tire problem last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s Magic Mile ruined a potentially strong day and racecar. Friday’s finish cost the Grimm Construction/Multiple Sclerosis Toyota at least four spots at the finish line and a number of positions in the all-important point’s race.

Eddie Mac started the day tied with Ben Kennedy for third place but fell back to fifth place when the outer tire went flat when the green flag waved on the lap 147 restart with the frustrated driver saying, “I was really lucky to keep it off the wall in turn one. Last week we wrecked when the tire blew but this week we ran tires with inner-liners and that was the only thing that kept us off the wall. I just had to limp around the final few laps. The car was not great all race but we were in a position to gain a little in the point’s race. We lost a great opportunity last week to gain a lot of points and today definitely hurt us.”

Both practices on Thursday focused more on preparing a stable car for the 150 lap race around the high-banked extremely fast race track with Eddie Mac saying, “We didn’t tape up and make a qualifying run like most of the fast guys. Rollie (LaChance) and I wanted to get the car set-up for the long race so we weren’t disappointed with the times on Thursday. We knew we could run a good qualifying lap Friday morning and we did. We started ninth (23.506 sec.-153.152 mph) after going out fifth so I was very happy with that but things changed when we took the green flag.”
Eddie Mac slipped back from his ninth starting position to 15th with a tight car, eventually falling to 18th when the second caution flag of the race waved on lap 57. A decision to pit during the caution to free the #71 up was made for a wedge and tire adjustment. The Grimm Construction Toyota headed to the pits again on a lap 64 caution to loosen it up more with a track bar adjustment. A caution on lap 71 also served as the halfway break. The Grimm Racing Team changed tires and more adjustments and returned for the final laps in 17th place.

“It was a crazy day with the car,” said Eddie. “The car got real tight then we hit the pits again and it made it real loose again and we were not making huge adjustments. It seemed whatever we did it sent the car in the opposite direction. We just couldn’t get it where it needed to be. Everyone worked their tails off but it just didn’t happen the way we wanted it to be. Even at the end we still had a chance to have a good top ten finish but the right front tire took care of that. We lost a lot of ground the last two weeks on tracks we usually run well on because of right front tire problems. It is frustrating so we have to have a good run at Road Atlanta (Oct. 18) to close out the season.”

Eddie Mac ran in the 17th position on the lap 116 restart to move steadily through the field and into the 11th spot for the lap 147 restart saying, “I thought we could get a couple of spots on the restart because a lot of guys were sliding around but the tire let go and all I could do was hang on. The restarts today were crazy and it seemed we were always in the wrong lane and we lost a lot of positions because guys didn’t go in front of us, so I was hoping we would have a good one at the end but we were the ones that didn’t go. It was definitely a bad day for us on one of our favorite tracks.”

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will wrap up the season with an inaugural trip to Road Atlanta on October 18. Fox Sports 1 will televise the Drive Sober 150 on October 13 at noon. A replay of the race will be shown on Monday, October 14 at 7 p.m.