{"id":25373,"date":"2019-06-25T14:42:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T18:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=25373"},"modified":"2019-06-25T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T18:42:39","slug":"eddie-macdonald-wows-the-crowd-with-his-pass-win-at-nhms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2019\/06\/eddie-macdonald-wows-the-crowd-with-his-pass-win-at-nhms\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie MacDonald Wows the Crowd with His PASS Win at NHMS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Dick Casey<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eddie MacDonald\u2019s thrilling win in the New England Short Track Showdown\u2019s PASS North 50 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 23 featured an epic side-by-side battle at the finish line to post the victory by .026 seconds. The win gave the Rowley, Mass. veteran his 11th<\/sup> win at NHMS, vaulting him into sole possession of second place behind Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Eddie Mac drove the EXIT Realty\/Hancock Electric Chevy to the lead for much of the race but the real challenge came with just four laps to go in the 50 lap feature with eventual second place finisher Mike Hopkins from Bangor, Maine. The duo battled side by side over the last four laps as neither driver would give an inch. With the checkered flag in sight, Eddie Mac inched ahead coming out of turn four as the two banged each other to the finish line with Eddie Mac getting the win by a mere two feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was a great race with Mike and I had to hold him off at the end because he was so fast, \u201csaid Eddie Mac. \u201cHe was trying everything and I had to pinch him down and it was just a great race and a lot of fun. I didn\u2019t know over the last few laps if I could hold the lead but I just held the throttle to the floor and fortunately we got the win. Mike drove me hard and clean and we were using each other at the end and that is what makes racing fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddie Mac started the race in the fourth position after the inverted drawing on the 29 car grid after posting a win in the third heat and jumped to second place on the green flag by turn one. The 17Ma, owned by Dave Lemieux, battled with Reid Lamphear for nine laps before taking the lead for two laps before the rocket of Derek Griffith powered to the lead on the 12th<\/sup> circuit. With the competition caution set for lap 30, both drivers held their positions as Hopkins drove to third and nearly passed Eddie Mac for second place as the caution flag waved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe car was tight so Rollie (LaChance-crew chief) and the guys changed right side tires and made two other adjustments that really helped the car turn better in the corners, Said Eddie Mac. \u201cI knew if we had a chance to win, the car needed to turn in the corners since a couple of cars were definitely faster than us. I am glad to say the changes worked and I was in the battle at the end. Our crew guys are the best and without their hard work on Saturday and today we would not be standing in Victory Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the restart, Eddie Mac drove past Griffith to take the lead but the #12 regained the top spot with an inside pass on lap 34 but Eddie Mac ran side by side to regain the lead a lap later with a dominating outside pass. With nine laps to go Hopkins moved to second and the race to the finish was on. Eddie Mac had just enough and used all his track knowledge and experience to get the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was our third win here with Dave Lemieux and Brian Neal and this one is really sweet,\u201d said Eddie Mac after the race. \u201cEvery win here is awesome and Rollie and I have had a lot of success because of the help from great owners and crew. To trail only Kyle Busch for the most wins here is truly a mind boggling accomplishment. I have to thank our sponsors starting with our long-time sponsors Kenny and Scott Thompson from Hancock Electric, Derek Beatrice from EXIT Realty, and Rob Grimm from Grimm Construction. Thanks to Dave Lemieux from Lemieux Home Builders, Brian Neal from Neal Excavating, and Freddie Peterson from Peterson Auto Body for everything they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do this without the help of a lot of people and Rollie and I have been lucky enough to have some great crew members including: Laura and Ryan LaChance, Jolene and Rob Drandson, Tom Rice, Kenny Grooms, Dick Casey, Dave Ricker, Aaron Rudolph, Hoppy, and Nicco. Special thanks to our engine builder Paul Rinaldi for all his help and expertise. Thanks to Denise and Darcy, Dave\u2019s sisters, for the food to fuel the crew. Dave\u2019s mom Barbara was here still recovering from health problems and it was great to have her in the stands. Also, we want to give a shout out to John Tiernan who is under the weather and Jim Daley from C&J Transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is great to have my father, Red, and my sister Jen here with my niece and nephew, Talya and Ashton, and I know my mother, Judy, was home cheering us on,\u201d said Eddie Mac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Dick Casey Eddie MacDonald\u2019s thrilling win in the New England Short Track Showdown\u2019s PASS North 50 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 23 featured an epic side-by-side battle at the finish line to post the victory by .026 seconds. The win gave the Rowley, Mass. veteran his 11th win at NHMS, vaulting him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,33,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-hampshire","category-nhms","category-pass","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25374,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25373\/revisions\/25374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}