For the 11th time Eddie MacDonald posted a top ten finish in the 13 races run in the K&N Pro Series East this season. In the rescheduled Labor Day rainout at the Greenville Pickens’ “Old House of Racing”, Eddie Mac rallied to score a tenth place run despite early engine problems in the Kevin Whitaker 140 on the half mile oval.
“Something was wrong with the engine almost from the start of the race,” said MacDonald. “It ran great in practice and we ran in the top five, but something happened shortly after we took the green flag. It really messed up the rest of the race but we managed to get a top ten finish. We haven’t had a chance to find out what went wrong with it. We have our other car ready for Rockingham this Saturday so we are in good shape.”
Qualifying and the race was rained out on Labor Day and the field was set by points. The Grimm Construction Chevy started fifth as a result. The #71 held his position for a while but the horsepower wasn’t there to hold off the field for long. “It was tough to run with these guys since this place is pretty fast with the long straightaways,” said MacDonald. “I just tried to hang on and try not to lose too many spots until we made our pit stop.”
MacDonald headed to the pits after going a lap down at the halfway flag in the 13th position. The Rowley, Mass. veteran ran in the 15th position after getting his lap back on caution lap 125. “We were really struggling with the engine and then near the end of the race the handling went away so we needed something to happen to give us a chance for a better finish and we got it.”
The race extended to 146 laps and finished with a green/white checker finish. In the last turn on the last lap Corey Lajoie moved leader Brent Moffitt out of the way that resulted in a huge crash on the frontstretch just before the start/finish line taking out the top runners. MacDonald was able to miss the carnage to take the checkers in the tenth spot.
“It was really wild at the end, “said Eddie Mac. “Cars were flying everywhere and I couldn’t even see the start/finish line with the smoke covering the track. We got lucky to miss the wreck and it helped turn a bad night into a decent one. Now we are headed to Rockingham for our final race of the season and we have “Blackie” all ready to go. It is our Loudon car so we hope it will run well on the mile track at Rockingham. Hopefully we will have a strong run there to finish up.”
With the run, MacDonald and team owner Rob Grimm moved in to sixth position in the point’s race. The event will mark the first appearance for the K&N Pro Series East in the Inaugural Classic 3 presented by RCR Racing Museum on the legendary Rockingham Speedway mile oval. NASCAR has scheduled a test day for Thursday with practice and qualifying on Friday. The green flag will fly at 2 p.m. on Saturday