When the green flag waves over Thompson International Speedway for
the NASCAR Camping World Series East's Full Fender Frenzy on Saturday, July
11th, Eddie MacDonald will be ready to challenge for the win. The famed
speedway has been a favorite track for the Rowley, Mass. driver, posting the
2005 season ending victory to accompany a number of solid runs during his
career.
MacDonald feels confident the Grimm Construction Chevy will be
strong in the 100-lap event saying, "We are bringing the car that we won
with at Thompson in 2005. Rollie and the crew have really worked hard to
prepare the car starting even before Loudon. With everything in place now
that we are in our full second year with Rob Grimm, we can focus on getting
the car ready for the next race and not have to worry about fixing it to get
to the next track. That has really been a big help for our program."
The race for the championship is well within the grasp of the team
with five races remaining on the schedule on tracks that have been good for
MacDonald. "We are only 18 points behind Lavender for the lead so this is an
important race for us. If we can qualify up front and stay up front, we
should be competing for the win at the end. Our goal at the beginning of the
season was to contend for the championship and I feel we can put ourselves
in a position to do that with a strong run. I really love running at
Thompson. It is like two drag strips with high-banked turns and is very
fast. The spec engine we run now gives us enough horsepower to get off the
turns and crank it up down the long straights. This race should be a lot of
fun."
MacDonald has qualified well in the past, starting third in last
year's Full Fender Frenzy but early handling issues and a late-race flat
tire produced a 15th place finish. MacDonald expects much better results
this time around saying, "Last year we brought the Loudon car and I'm not
sure if the longer wheel base was responsible for our handling issues but we
know what this car can do. We know we are capable of running up front and
Rollie knows how to set-up the car so it will be there at the end. I just
have to take car of the tires and we should be good."
Rob Grimm's first race with the team was the 2007 event at Thompson
that nearly ended with a top five finish. "We were running sixth with four
laps to go and I had the car to get a couple of more positions but
unfortunately we got spun out coming out of turn four. But Rob liked what he
saw in the team and things have only gotten better since that race. I would
really like to win this for Rob, as well as NEMO New England Mechanical
Overlay that has been with us for years."
Qualifying for the Full Fender Frenzy will begin at 4:15 on Saturday
with the green flag waving at 7:00 pm.