this season with a seventh place run in the Grimm Construction Chevy in the
K & N 100. After starting 13th on the grid for the 66 lap event over the
road course at Lime Rock, MacDonald moved steadily ahead to post his fourth
top ten finish.
“We always qualify 13th,” joked MacDonald. “It doesn’t seem to matter what
we do, we qualify 13th, so we know where we will start and go from there.
The car was really good during the race and we were able to drive it into
the top ten quickly and stay there. It got a little tight in the turns but
it was okay. We were a little too aggressive with the brakes when we set the
car up in the shop and I kept locking them up in the turns. Eventually it
ended up costing a couple of spots at the end but over5all we had a good
day.”
MacDonald posted a fantastic second place run last year despite losing
second and third gear for much of the race and expected the car to be even
better this race but the brake issue proved too much to overcome. “Rollie
and the crew spent a lot of time getting the car just right and I know we
would have had a much better finish but the brakes were just too aggressive.
I feel bad for the guys because of all the hard work they put into it, but
it is just one of those things.”
When the green flag waved, MacDonald gained five positions by lap seven
before pitting for gas. “Our strategy was to come in early and then recycle
our way back to the front when all the leaders came in to pit. At the
halfway flag we were running in 12th and looking to gain more positions.
Unfortunately the brake issue really prevented us from getting into the top
three. We were able to get to the top five and I hoped we could finish
there,’ said the Rowley, Mass. veteran.
With only three cautions for eight laps, the field quickly strung out as the
laps started to wind down. MacDonald ran in fifth place until Truex made the
pass on lap 53 to drop back to sixth where he ran until Wallace got by with
only six laps remaining with MacDonald saying, “I really hated losing those
two positions at the end but the brakes were really locking up so it gave
those guys the opportunity to get past me. We had plenty of speed and were
able to pull away so it was frustrating for us at the end. We had a much
better car than where we finished.”
With the seventh place finish, MacDonald gained three positions to move into
the ninth spot in the point race. The team is hoping to gain more positions
when the green flag waves again for the K & N Pro East Series at its home
track, Lee USA Speedway on July 30th. Speed Channel will broadcast the Lime
Rock Park race on Thursday, July 8th.