photo by RPM 360
By: Dick Casey
Eddie MacDonald began his busy weekend with a ninth place run in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East’s United Site Services 70 Friday night to kick off the Sprint Cup weekend. The Rowley, Mass. veteran racer then changed fire suits to compete in the Sprint Cup 5 Hour Energy 301 on Sunday.
The tree time K&N winner at Loudon struggled in practice Friday battling a tight racecar but was able qualify the Exit Realty/Grimm Construction Chevy in the 13th position on Friday morning with Eddie Mac saying, “We made a number of changes during practice but we couldn’t dial it in. It was tight during the practices on Thursday but the adjustments we made for qualifying worked enough to get us into a 13th place run. We thought the car would be good for the race but it didn’t work out that way.”
When the green flag waved to start the 70 lap feature on the “Magic Mile”, Eddie Mac was able to move to tenth by lap 15 but the car changed back to the tight condition as Eddie Mac began falling back in the field. The #71 Exit Realty entry fell to 15 by lap 46, then lapped by eventual winner William Byron. The first caution flag waved on lap 56 to give crew chief Rollie LaChance an opportunity to make adjustments.
“We really needed that caution to make changes and we got the “lucky dog,” said Eddie Mac. “The car was a little free entering the corner and it was shoving the nose. It was snappy loose so the crew was able to make some changes and it really helped but we needed one more adjustment and a few more laps but we didn’t get either. We did get to ninth but you always want a better finish.”
Eddie Mac was able to get the top ten finish with a bold three wide move on a lap 60 restart with ten to go as he powered in the middle of the three cars to gain five spots in one lap from his 14th restart position into ninth place and held the position to the checkers saying, “We were a little disappointed we did not have a better finish but at least we got a top ten after struggling in practice and the race.”
“I have to give a big thank you to Derek Beatrice from Exit Realty Beatrice Associates from Middleton, Mass. for helping us out,” said Eddie Mac. “Derek came on board last year and wanted to help us out again in the K&N, Cup, and the future ACT races. He is an awesome guy and brought a lot of his people to the race and they had a great time. It was a lot of fun meeting all the fans and spending time with them at the cookout Derek had. For many of them it was their first racing experience and they loved it and said they will be back in September when we run the ACT race here.”
The United Site Services 70 will air on NBCSN on July 23, at 7p.m.
Two more K&N races are on the Grimm schedule at Richmond on September 10 and Dover on October 2.