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Goodyear Dealers of Iowa 200 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East/West Challenge |
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| TOP TEN FINISH for MACDONALD at IOWA SPEEDWAY | |||||||||||||
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Eddie MacDonald posted a seventh
place finish in the Goodyear Dealers of Iowa 200 at Iowa
Speedway in the K&N Pro Series third race of the season. The
Grimm Construction Chevy qualified fourth after scoring one of
only five sub 24 second laps around the .875 mile oval.
Forty-nine cars attempted to qualify for 44-car starting grid in
the combination event pitting the East versus the West series’
drivers. MacDonald’s has crashed out of the two previous races
at the track so this finish is well received. “We have struggled here in the past to finish so we are very pleased with the results,” said MacDonald after the race. “Both times we came here the car was fast but something always seemed to happen to ruin our day. Today the car was fast again and we put down a great qualifying lap and we were able to have a good finish. Obviously we would have liked to get to the top five but the car was real tight at the end. I thought I could get a couple of more positions but with the tight car it took me a lot of laps to pass a car. It is our best run here so we’ll take it.” After running in the middle of the pack during Saturday’s and Sunday morning’s practice session crew chief Rollie LaChance tweaked the set up for qualifying and the adjustments paid off with the fourth place spot on the starting grid. MacDonald lap time of 23.946 was nearly a one second improvement of the best practice time. “The car really felt great and I was able to drive it in deep in the corners and hug the bottom. As I said, we’ve had fast cars here before but this time it was super fast. We wanted to start up front and that happened so it set up a good day for us. Not as good as it could have been but it was good.” When the green flag waved, MacDonald ran comfortably in the top six until the first pit stop when the caution flag flew on lap 75. After taking on gas and left side tires the #71 returned to the track in the tenth spot but quickly got shuffled back to 15th when the #39 car did not get up to speed on the restart causing the cars in the outside lane to lose a number of spots. “Yes, that restart hurt us because we got shuffled back so far it took a lot of time and using up the car to get the spots back. We knew we had another pit stop so we just wanted to be in a good position after our stop.” A caution on lap 129 saw all the leaders pit and the Grimm Chevy took on gas, right side tires and a wedge adjustment. With 60 laps to go MacDonald rode in thirteenth and in tenth by lap 160. With the laps winding down and the leaders stretched out on the track MacDonald gained the final two positions to seventh before the GWC finish. Only one West car finished ahead of MacDonald but the team moved from tenth in the points and into eighth. The K&N Pro Series East next race will be at Martinsville Speedway on June 6. |
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| Eddie Finishes 7th in Iowa - Results Here | |||||||||||||
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| MACDONALD LOOKS FOR SOLID RUN IN IOWA | |||||||||||||
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Eddie MacDonald expects a better
result as the Grimm Racing Team prepares for their third visit
to Iowa Speedway in the K&N Pro Series East/West race. The
Goodyear Dealers of Iowa 200 will pit drivers from the East and
West series for 200 laps around the .875 mile oval designed by
Rusty Wallace on Sunday, May 23. MacDonald believes his third trip to Iowa will be the charm saying, “We ended up crashing out of both races there. It was very frustrating because both times the car was fast. The first time there was a learning experience and we really started to run well before we wrecked. Last year Rollie and the guys had the car set up great and we expected a good finish but we got caught up in one of those racing accidents. We were running near the front when it happened so we feel we can run well this time. Essentially we have the same set-up but we have a couple of new wrinkles we think will really help the car.” After a somewhat disappointing start to the season the Rowley, Mass. veteran knows it is important to do well this week saying, “We were terrible at Greenville Pickens the first race but we improved for a seventh place finish at South Boston but we know we have to post a good finish at Iowa to stay in the points race. The team has been working hard and we are confident we can get it done at Iowa Speedway. We had two goals starting last week. One was to win the ACT race at Oxford Plains and we did that this past Sunday. The second is to win this Sunday in Iowa. We know we have the car to do it; we just have to stay out of trouble and be there at the end.” MacDonald enjoys the opportunity to compete at the track and with the West drivers saying, “Iowa is a blast to drive. It is one of those tracks that you can have a lot of fun driving side by side. All the East drivers like to go up against the West guys and they like racing against us. There is the competitive thing but since we race with those guys a couple of times a year now, we have a lot of fun. You know you will have a tough race with those guys but that is what makes it fun for us and the fans.” The Grimm Construction Chevy will take the green flag on Sunday with the live update provided on Neracing.com. Speed will provide video of the race on May 27 at 6pm. |
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NASCAR HOME TRACKS WEB POSTS:
Statistical Advance: Analyzing the Goodyear Tire Dealers of Iowa 200 at Iowa Speedway Eddie MacDonald (NKNPS-East No. 71 Grimm Construction Chevrolet) • Has six wins, two poles and 50 top 10s in 123 career NKNPS East starts. • Was the 2009 championship runner-up, just 34 points behind titlist Ryan Truex. • Is currently 10th in points after two races in 2010. • Has participated in the two previous Iowa combo races … Finished 20th overall in 2008 and eighth in 2009.
News & Notes: East-West ‘Challenge’ Brings A
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