Back to Back Top Tens for Eddie MacDonald at Bristol and Oxford
Eddie MacDonald spent the weekend racing, literally, after posting an impressive eighth place finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Pittlite 125 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night then flying into Boston on Sunday morning then race to Oxford Plains Speedway to score a third place finish in the ACT Tour’s Oxford 100 later that afternoon.
Nothing was easy for the Grimm Racing team beginning Wednesday evening when the lift gate on the hauler malfunctioned and unable to close with the car loaded in the top. With the gate stuck eight feet in the air, two ramp trucks and a construction forklift were called into service to free the car. One ramp truck was place on top of the other and supported by the forklift, the Grimm Construction/Multiple Sclerosis Chevy was rolled from the hauler on to the ramp truck and eventually lowered to the ground. The car and the equipment were loaded into two car trailers the following morning for the trek to Bristol.
“That was something you do not see every day,” laughed Eddie Mac. “We knew the weekend would be hectic making two races in Tennessee then Maine in two days, so to start out like this was definitely strange. Fortunately Rob (Grimm) knew the right people to call to get the car down and those guys worked until one in the morning. Then early the next morning Rob’s guys showed up to help us load the trailers for the trip. It was a huge relief to get to the track that night without anything else happening. Racing was easy after all that.”
The Pittlite 125 was Eddie Mac’s first race in the K&N series this season with the team running a partial five race schedule. The Rowley, Mass. veteran driver has had great success on “The World’s Fastest Half-Mile” posting a win in 2013 and two top ten finishes. The team struggled in practice and qualifying on Friday night to find the speed and ended up in the 26th starting position for the race on Saturday with Eddie Mac saying, “It was strange because the car turned well in corners and was down where we wanted it to be but we just didn’t get the speed so our time was off. We just have to figure this qualifying thing out.”
Eddie Mac had his work cut out for him starting 26th in the 29 car field but as he usually does the #71 was glued to the bottom while the rest of the field opted to run the high side. By the second caution flag on lap 26, Eddie Mac was running in the 17th position saving tires and passing where he could without pushing the car too much. No tire changes were allowed unless a tire was damaged so everyone had to find ways to conserve. Eddie Mac continued to run the bottom and move up through the field. After the break on lap72 the #71 restarted in the 11th position with fifty laps to go and quickly grabbed three spots to p.8 then to sixth with 25 laps to go.
With 18 to go Eddie got into another car in turn three costing him three spots but was able to get back one to finish eighth saying, “It is too bad I lost those two spots but it was a good finish. The tires were just by the end. Starting as far back as we did use up a lot of the tires, even though I tried to save as much as possible. Running the bottom uses them up more but I had to pass all the cars. We had a lot of fun and everyone did a great job. Now we are off to Oxford. You have to love it!”
Eddie, Rollie, Rob, and Ryan started the trip from Boston to Oxford Sunday morning hoping to make the last ACT practice to get some laps on the #17 Exit Realty/Hancock Electric Chevy after extensive repairs over the winter. With two Oxford 250 wins and multiple Oxford wins both Eddie Mac and Rollie (LaChance) know what is needed to be successful and despite the lack of practice they were able to run well in qualifying and started 16th in the Oxford 100 after posting an even rating.
Eddie Mac moved steadily to the front and into p.11 by lap 40. With 50 laps to go, Eddie Mac began to power his way past the early leaders and into p.5 by lap 70. From that point on, lapped traffic made passing more difficult on the quarter mile, flat oval. Eddie Mac rode in third place and engaged in a door-to-door battle with the #28 for the remainder of the race. Eddie finally passed the #28 on lap 94 for the second position but a caution on the lap restarted him behind the #28. Lapped traffic starting in front made passing impossible for the final six laps.
“We are happy with the finish but you always want to do better,” said Eddie Mac after the race. “Everyone was sliding around at the end so it was really difficult to pass and the lapped cars made it very tough. But that is racing and we hope to have an even better finish next week at Lee USA Speedway in the Governor’s Cup. I have to thank all the people that helped us this weekend to get everything set up for us here: Bobby Wood, Tom Rice, Brian Neal, Kelyn Harrell, Jolene and Rob Drandson, Ryan, Rachel and Laura LaChance, Freddie Peterson and I am probably forgetting someone. Thanks to Exit Realty and Derek Beatrice and Kenny and Scott Thompson from Hancock Electric. We hope to see everyone at Lee next Sunday. It should be a great show.”