photo by RPM
After a two race hiatus, Eddie MacDonald and the Grimm Racing Team took the green flag in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in the Visit Hampton Va. 175 at Langley Speedway to post an eighth place finish. Despite an unscheduled pit stop on caution lap 90, Eddie Mac powered back from the rear of the field to post the solid finish.
The .396 of a mile oval proved to be tough to negotiate with the veteran driver saying, “We were running in the ninth position and trying to take it easy but we were getting bounced around a lot. The body took quite a beating and I thought I might have a right front tire going down so we decided to pit. The tire was okay but the toe was definitely knocked out. I probably should have stayed out but I couldn’t take the chance. It cost us a lot of positions but it was something we had to do the. The race was 175 laps so we thought we could get back up there.”
After returning to the track, the #71 Grimm Construction/Multiple Sclerosis Chevy began marching from its 22nd restarting position to the front despite a handling issue with Eddie Mac saying, “With the toe knocked out, the car was not turning that good but it was fast. I ran mostly on the outside because it was difficult to pass on the inside. As I said the car was fast and I was able to pass a lot of cars until I got up to the eighth spot but by then I had pretty much used up the tires. Except for Kenzie (Ruston) no one had anything for the five Turner Scott cars. It was not the finish we were looking for but we had a decent eighth place run.”
“I was pretty excited when we unloaded and hit the track for the first time,” said Eddie Mac on his 179th career start in the K&N. “The car was very fast and handled great and we were third fastest in the second group for a long time before finally posting the sixth fastest time. We are not usually up there in speed in practice so I thought we had a shot at winning the race. Qualifying was not great and I’m not sure what happened there but starting 12th was not too bad. We had to change the sway bar and a spring and that made us light so we had to add twenty pounds to the car and that small amount made the car just a little tight, so that could have affected our qualifying run. It definitely had some effect during the race but if we hadn’t been forced to the pits because of the damage to the car, I think we certainly would have contended for the win. It is a bit frustrating because we had such a good car right from the start. Rob (Grimm) has provided us with two new cars and they have really made a difference for the team. We will have the other new one ready for Loudon after getting the extensive damage repaired caused by the tire blowing out in Iowa. The team is excited about running at our home track in July where we have had some great success. We had a tire blow out last year while leading the race at New Hampshire so we feel we are owed one and plan to be very competitive there.”
On Friday July 11, Eddie Mac and Grimm Racing will compete in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series East’s Granite State 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Rowley, Mass. driver has three K&N wins to his credit, as well as three American Canadian Tour wins on the “Magic Mile.” Be sure to follow eddiemacdonald.net website for a surprise announcement coming soon.
Watch the Visit Hampton Va. 175 on Fox Sports 1 on June 27 at noon.