GRIMM RACING - NASCAR K&N Pro Series East

The K&N 125
Friday, July 30th - 6:00 PM



				Chris Roy Photos

MACDONALD 4TH AT LEE

Eddie MacDonald returned home and came close to achieving his goal to win on the track that began his racing career when he was sixteen years old on the family owned Lee USA Speedway facility. While most drivers would be happy to finish fourth in the K&N Pro Series East 125 at Lee, the run for the Grimm Construction Chevy was bittersweet.

“Obviously we wanted to win at home in front of family and friends and the car was certainly fast enough but finishing fourth was our best run this season so we are happy about that,” said the Rowley, Mass. veteran. “For the last part of the race, Truex and I had a great battle going and were running each other real clean but I guess he should have been protecting the bottom instead of pushing me up the track. Wallace made a real aggressive move on the bottom and used twelve tires instead of four to hold the bottom. Unfortunately we were four of those tires.”

MacDonald qualified second with a fast time of 86.6 mph (15.589 sec) on the three-eighths mile oval, and then took the lead on the green flag lap from polesitter Kevin Swindell. MacDonald led five times for a race high 65 laps to earn ten bonus points. The bonus points were enough to move into sixth place, one ahead of Matt Kobyluck, in the championship point’s race with three races remaining on the schedule.

MacDonald was running second when contact was made with Swindell in turn two on lap 54, “I really felt bad for Swindell but I didn’t do on purpose. My car was tight and when I hit the gas it pushed up the track just as he was making a diamond turn in the corner. He came down and I went up and we got together. I know he was upset with me and I don’t blame him. He had a car capable of winning but as I said, it was not intentional. You can ask anyone I race with and they will tell you, I don’t race like that.”

MacDonald led until Truex finally made the pass just as the yellow flag flew on lap 116 and the battle was on when the green flag waved with three laps to go. “I had to restart on the outside for the earlier restarts because we were pushing up the track and Truex was really good on the inside so I knew it be a great race the final three laps. I was surprised when Rollie told me we were three wide and that worked for about one lap but it was not going to last the rest of the way. We almost wrecked in turn one and by the time I got it back we were in fourth. I know Truex was pretty upset with Wallace but he did what he had to do to win the race. Unfortunately we got caught up in it and it definitely hurt us. We had a good point’s race and now we will try to get more at Gresham Motorsports Park at the end of the month.”

Many of the former drivers and officials of the old Busch North Series and the family of former director Bunk Sampson were on hand for the event with MacDonald saying, “It was really great to see some of the guys that made all of this possible, especially Bunk’s family. I knew Bunk when I was just a kid and he was a great guy. He did a lot for this series but he was the kind of guy you wanted as a friend. His name is all over this series and always will be.”

The Grimm Construction Chevy will be in action next in the K&N Pro Series East at Gresham Motorsports Park in Georgia on Saturday, August 28.

NASCAR REPORT - LEE, N.H. -- Darrell Wallace Jr. made a three-wide pass for the lead with two laps to go and held on for the victory Friday in the K&N Pro Series 125 at Lee USA Speedway.

Wallace started behind Ryan Truex and Eddie MacDonald on the race's final restart. Truex and MacDonald had swapped the lead four times over the previous 35 laps, and appeared setting up for a final dash to the checkers for the win. But it was Wallace who had drove up through the field after getting tangled up in an early race incident and wound up stealing the spotlight. He dove inside the side-by-side leaders going into Turn 3, and emerged with the lead coming out of Turn 4.

MacDonald ended up fourth. The Rowley, Mass., driver seemed poised to win at his home track, where he made his series debut in 2001. He led five times for a race-high 65 laps only to get shuffled out of the lead in the final laps.

The K&N Pro Series 125 will air on SPEED on Thursday, Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. ET.

WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD: Eddie MacDonald

MACDONALD, K&N PRO SERIES EAST RETURN TO LEE

Follow the action 7/30 at NASCAR Home Tracks Lap by Lap HERE

The next stop for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will take place at an old familiar facility.

Lee (N.H.) USA Speedway, has returned to the schedule for the first time since the 2004 season. The .375-mile banked oval played host to the K&N Pro Series East 16 times from 1992-2004.

While the NASCAR K&N Pro Series 125 will be the first trip for the vast majority of teams and drivers to Lee, for one driver, it will be a homecoming.

Eddie MacDonald, who hails from Rowley, Mass., has a strong connection to the New Hampshire short track. As the son of track owner and operator Red MacDonald, he has spent many a Friday night at Lee.

"Before I started racing there, they would bring us up - my sister and I - to the track and someone would put us to work," MacDonald said. "A couple of the employees would look over us because we were still fairly young. I'd be selling popcorn and pizza and she would be selling 50/50 tickets and
different stuff like that. We did that for quite a while."

MacDonaldmoved from one side of the fence to the other at age 15 in the Hobby Stock division. He then moved up to Late Models and eventually made his K&N Pro Series East debut there in 2001.

Since he began competing in the K&N Pro Series East full time, MacDonald hasn't been back to the track a whole lot. In addition to the commitments with his East team, he's just not very comfortable as a spectator.

"I hate going to races unless I'm racing," MacDonald said. "It gets my mind going, thinking I need to go home and get a car ready to come back and race. I do love going up there and watching the guys I used to race with, but every time I go up there I wish I had my own car. "

As one of the veterans, and combined with the series' six-year absence from competition at the track, MacDonald and Matt Kobyluck are the only drivers on the preliminary entry list who have K&N Pro Series East experience at Lee.

MacDonaldhopes that his extensive experience at Lee will provide an edge on the competition, and he will undoubtedly have a comfort level that the other drivers will not.

"That's going to go quite a long ways - having raced there so many times in the past," MacDonald said. "The tough thing is, the development teams have so much technology and experience. Hopefully we can really get our car to handle there, and my experience from being there so much will give us an
advantage."

MacDonaldhas embraced the perceived pressure on him and the team as the hometown favorite, and is using it as further motivation.

"We put pressure on ourselves for every race, but having not won a race there in the K&N Series yet, definitely puts a little more pressure," MacDonald said. "It is our home track, and it just means that much more."

Fast Facts
The Race: NASCAR K&N Pro Series 125
The Place: Lee USA Speedway
The Date: Friday, July 30
The Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
TV Schedule: SPEED, Aug. 5, 6 p.m. ET
Track Layout: .375-mile oval
Race Purse: $101,209

Event Schedule: Practice 2-2:45 p.m., 3:15-4 p.m.; Qualifying 6 p.m.

Track Contact: Bob Watson, (978) 462-4252, sales@leeusaspeedway.com,
Twitter: @LeeUSASpeedway

NASCAR PR Contact: Jason Christley, (386) 547-2469, jchristley@nascar.com,
Twitter: @NASCARHomeTrack

Raceday Notes
The Race ... The NASCAR K&N Pro Series 125 at Lee (N.H.) USA Speedway is the seventh event in a 10-race schedule this year for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. This will mark the 17th time that Lee USA has played host to the K&N Pro Series East, and the first since 2004.

The Procedure ... The starting field is 24 cars, including provisionals. The first 20 cars will have secured starting positions through two-lap time trials and the remaining four spots will be awarded through the provisional process. The race will be 125 laps (46.875 miles).

The Track ... Lee USA Speedway is a .375-mile asphalt oval that features 12 degrees of banking in the turns and eight degrees in the straights. It is the smallest track - in terms of distance - that the K&N Pro Series East will visit in 2010.

Race Winners ... Brad Leighton recorded four wins at Lee USA to lead all K&N Pro Series East drivers. No active drivers have a win at Lee. Current team members Andy Santerre (3) and Dale Shaw (1) have reached Victory Lane there.

Pole Winners ... In the first 16 K&N Pro Series East events at Lee USA, only Dave Dion has earned more than one pole award, with seven. Santerre and Mike Olsen are the only current team members that earned poles behind the wheel.

'Busch North' Reunion To Highlight Series' Return To Lee
When the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East returns to Lee USA Speedway, past and present will meet as the track has organized a 'Busch North' Reunion.

The K&N Pro Series East was established in 1987 as the Busch North Series, and has strong ties to Lee, which played host to the series in 13 of its first 18 years of competition.

Among the many former K&N Pro Series East drivers expected to attend the reunion are past champions Joey Kourafas, Dick McCabe, Mike Olsen, Andy Santerre and Dale Shaw.
Olsen, Santerre and Shaw are still involved in the K&N Pro Series East. Olsen owns his own team, Santerre is director of competition for the four-team Revolution Racing and Shaw helps field a team for his son, D.J Shaw.

Fans in attendance will have a chance to meet the former drivers in an autograph session as part of the evening's activities. Race fans are encouraged to bring collectors items to have signed by
NASCAR North Series drivers from past and present, as an autograph session will also be held at 6:30 PM for the current North Series drivers, some of who will become the future stars of the top three divisions in NASCAR.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series 125 will also feature a tribute to former series director, the late Bunk Sampson. Former K&N Pro Series East technical director Ken Farrington will also serve as grand marshal for the race.