by | Oct 1, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, Touring Series News
A 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.”
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by | Sep 25, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, New Hampshire, NHMS
Grimes, IA – Brett Moffitt, driver of the Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE) No. 11 NISCO Toyota Camry, arrived in Loudon, New Hampshire for the North American Power 100 in second place in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season point standings. He was faced with a 40 point deficit to the point leader and had only a 13 point cushion over the third place driver. Moffitt and the No. 11 HRE Toyota team waged a hard-fought two-day battle against a very ill-handling race car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). Still, Moffitt left NHMS with his point deficit cut to 23 and with a more comfortable 32 point cushion over the third place driver in the standings.
Not long after the team unloaded at the 1.058 mile asphalt oval known as “The Magic Mile’, it became apparent that the car lacked speed and was probably not a top 10 car. Out of a field of 31 entries, Moffitt’s practice speed of 124.977 (30.476 seconds) put him into 20th place. He did not attempt a mock qualifying run, and after practice had ended, Moffitt’s Twitter account described the team as “struggling, but still hoping to find something that will help.”
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by Jay | Sep 8, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, New England, Touring Series News
Eddie MacDonald Runs Fourth at Greenville Pickens
Eddie MacDonald drove from his twelfth place starting position to finish fourth in the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 140 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in the eleventh K&N Pro Series East race this season. It was the second visit to the “Old House of Racing” this season with MacDonald taking the checkers in eighth place in the March race. Monday’s Labor Day finish solidifies Eddie Mac’s fourth place standing in the point’s race trailing third place by only four points with four races remaining.
The Grimm Construction Chevy/Multiple Sclerosis Chevy qualified twelfth in the 23 car field in 21.051 sec. around the flat half mile oval. Eddie Mac ran seventh fastest in the first practice session and ran 19th on old tires in the second practice saying, “The car ran well in the first practice and we knew we would be okay for the race. We qualified in twelfth and that is about what we expected. The important thing on this track is to save your tires for the end. The drivers that do that the best will be there at the end of the race.”
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by Jay | Sep 4, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, New England, Touring Series News
Eddie MacDonald drove from his twelfth place starting position to finish fourth in the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 140 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in the eleventh K&N Pro Series East race this season. It was the second visit to the “Old House of Racing” this season with MacDonald taking the checkers in eighth place in the March race. Monday’s Labor Day finish solidifies Eddie Mac’s fourth place standing in the point’s race trailing third place by only four points with four races remaining.
The Grimm Construction Chevy/Multiple Sclerosis Chevy qualified twelfth in the 23 car field in 21.051 sec. around the flat half mile oval. Eddie Mac ran seventh fastest in the first practice session and ran 19th on old tires in the second practice saying, “The car ran well in the first practice and we knew we would be okay for the race. We qualified in twelfth and that is about what we expected. The important thing on this track is to save your tires for the end. The drivers that do that the best will be there at the end of the race.” (more…)
by Jay | Apr 27, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series, Touring Series News
Thirty six NASCAR K&N Pro Series East cars took the green flag in the Blue Ox 100 at Richmond International Raceway on Thursday with Eddie MacDonald in the unenviable 33rd starting position. When the checkered flag waved at the end of the 100 lap (75 miles) race the Grimm Construction Chevy scored an impressive fourth place finish.
“We needed that finish after the last couple of races,” said a very pleased driver. “We had a terrible qualifying attempt. The front of the car was hitting the track and it was smoking quite a bit. We had to start the race that way since the cars are impounded after qualifying.”
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by | Apr 18, 2013 | NASCAR, NASCAR K&N Pro Series
Grimes, IA – Brett Moffitt, driver of the #11 Don Valley North Toyota Scion Toyota for Hattori Racing Enterprises (HRE), made his 50th career start at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL on Saturday night in the NAPA Auto Parts 150. He took the green flag on Saturday evening with a six point lead in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship point standings. By the time the checkered flag waved, Moffitt had extended his lead to nine points over his nearest competition.
The race teams arrived in Florida for the third race of the season a day early in order to participate in an open day of testing allowed by NASCAR prior to the inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 150. This was the first stop for the Series at the storied half mile asphalt raceway and the first stand-alone points race ever for the Series in the State of Florida. Teams were allowed to test the racing surface for the majority of the day, and the #11 HRE Toyota team, owned by Shigeaki Hattori and led by Crew Chief Dave McCarty, made good use of their opportunity to learn about track conditions. Five Flags is regarded as an “intermediate short track”, and its banked surface called for a somewhat different set up than the team had used the prior weekend at Greenville Pickens. Fine-tuning to compensate for those differences was the object of the open day of practice.
By the time the teams came out for K&N Pro Series East practice sessions on Saturday afternoon, the #11 Toyota was running laps in the 17.6 second range, or just under 102 mph around the banked half mile track. Qualifying was slated for the warmest part of the afternoon, and Moffitt managed to lay down a lap of 17.260 seconds or 104.287 mph to put his car into the 4th slot, giving him a starting position on the outside of row 2. Moffitt used his time from the 1st qualifying lap and brought the car in before completing his second qualifying lap, due to a very tight condition.
At the drop of the green flag, that tight condition persisted, and Moffitt began to drop quickly back through the field, falling almost immediately from his 4th place starting spot to the middle of the pack. By lap 15, he was struggling to hold onto the 12th position. Around lap 27, the car finally began to come back to him, and although Moffitt was not able to advance, he was at least able to close the door on 2 more contenders who were looking to improve their positions at his expense. As the handling improved little by little, he began to turn his fortunes around, and by lap 42, he was back inside the top 10 in 9th position. By lap 68, he had climbed up to 8th. On lap 72, Moffitt was scored in 7th position and was working hard to retake the 6th spot. He moved to the outside line, but could not make the pass for 6th stick and settled back in line in 7th. Although he had pulled even with the 6th place car again by the time the competition yellow waved on lap 75, he had not been able to complete the pass and was scored in 7th at the break.
Because the Series had never raced at Five Flags before, a 10 minute break was allowed at the half way point so that teams could make necessary adjustments. Teams were allowed to change 4 tires, but they were not permitted to raise the hoods for other adjustments. Moffitt explained to his team, “The car is coming to me, but we still need to get through the center of the corners better.” Dave McCarty and the crew added a rubber in the right rear and dropped the track bar, as well as making a slight air pressure adjustment.
Moffitt took the green flag for the restart from the inside of Row 4. The adjustments made by the #11 team over the break improved the handling enough that Moffitt was able to move back up to the 5th position by lap 85. With 50 laps to go, he was pressuring the 4th place car, and by lap 112, he had retaken the 4th position, winning a 4-way battle for the spot and regaining all of the positions he had dropped at the beginning of the event.
During the final caution of the evening on lap 136, Moffitt reported to the team that, “The drive off coming out of turn 4 is pretty much gone,” but he continued to hang onto his 4th place position until the end.
Although there had been action all night back in the pack, once the green flag waved, there were no lead changes whatsoever. Ben Kennedy, great grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., managed to capture the pole and lead every lap wire-to-wire.
Moffitt, the Series points leader, offered the winner his congratulations as he climbed out of the car. “Ben Kennedy was definitely the class of the field tonight. No one had anything for him. Ben and the #96 team really deserved this win, and we want to congratulate them. I also want to thank my guys for giving me a good car tonight. We battled a very tight condition from the start of the race, and had to drop back through the field and ride for a while to keep from wadding it up. Eventually, it started coming back to me, and we were able to work our way back up to 4th, which made for a good points night for us. My guys never gave up. They made good adjustments at the break, and we were able to get a solid finish.” Moffitt and the #11 HRE Toyota team have now scored 3 consecutive top 5 finishes in all 3 of their starts this season. (more…)
