HOME COOKING: MacDonald Shines On New England Soil
Oftentimes, winning one of the season’s biggest races is but the beginning of the story. For Eddie MacDonald, winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the final chapter in the ultimate underdog story.
How “underdog” is the New England born and bred NASCAR K&N Pro Series East driver?
When MacDonald first won at New Hampshire in June of 2008, four of the five cars finishing directly behind him were fielded by Sprint Cup Series teams. It was just the fourth win at the time in a career spanning more than 100 series starts. And one of the most crucial suspension pieces on his winning No. 71 Chevrolet had been crafted, quite literally, in a basement.
Two years later, it seems as though the victory still hasn’t quite sunk in.
“I always thought I could win at Loudon, but it’s one of those places where it always seems to go wrong,” MacDonald said. “You’ve really got to be on top of your game there, because if anything can go wrong it probably will there. It was an awesome feeling just to win there.”
Once was hardly enough, though. MacDonald has won three of the last four K&N Pro Series East races held at the 1.058-mile track — including a sweep of the two events in 2008 — as the series prepares for its next event at New Hampshire on June 25, the Heluva Good! 125.
MacDonald, who finished a career-best of second in the final standings last season, is one of six New England drivers currently competing in a series once dominated by names like Kelly Moore, Dave Dion and Dale Shaw. Those drivers and their cars have been replaced by Sprint Cup Series teams with teenaged development drivers from across the country.
The series landscape has changed considerably, giving way to the big names and bigger expectations of stock car racing’s most successful organizations. What hasn’t changed is that sometimes all a race car needs is good old Yankee ingenuity, even in the face of competing on a Cup track where conventional wisdom says technology and R&D support provided by Cup teams should matter most.
But when MacDonald beat Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Trevor Bayne for his win in June 2008, he did so on a car that had been built — in part — inside the house of crew chief Rollie LaChance.
“I do the shocks for the car right at home in my basement,” LaChance said, remembering when NASCAR started using a new device to test shock rebound rates that season. He bought one of the devices for himself to test his work with.
“This test device came in by UPS, and as soon as I got it I wanted to see it for myself. I took it out of the box and set it up in my living room right there on the carpet. I ran downstairs and grabbed a couple of shocks and put them on the device right then and there, and it just ended up staying.”
Fast-forward to MacDonald’s trip to Victory Lane and subsequent visit to post-race technical inspection. One of the NASCAR officials took a shock off MacDonald’s car and put it on one of the test devices — something one of LaChance’s young children took note of.
” ‘Hey that looks just like the one in our living room!’ they yelled out,” LaChance said. “The inspector looked at me like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ I was like, ‘Nope. It’s in our living room.'”
It’s become almost cliche to suggest that New Hampshire Motor Speedway is to New England racers and their fans what Daytona International Speedway is to stock car racing on the whole. But it’s as true today as it was when the track first hosted K&N Pro Series races 20 years ago this season.
LaChance fielded fast cars for drivers like Shaw and Tracy Gordon in the past with no measured success to show for it. MacDonald remembered his first visit to the track after never racing anywhere larger than the tight one-third mile Lee USA.
“I remember that first time we went, I thought it was pretty cool just to be there,” MacDonald said. “The problem was, though, that’s all we were. We were just there.”
But MacDonald — who has 19 career starts at New Hampshire, most of any track on the schedule, with seven top-10s and one pole — was able to do something not many New Englanders were able to do on a track where 150 mph speeds are nearly twice what the locals run on nearby short tracks. He was able to quickly find a comfort level.
And when he paired with LaChance, it was the perfect marriage of skill and sensibilities.
“Eddie loves the place, so that really helps,” LaChance said. “Some guys, they get to a place and they kind of psyche themselves out. It’s really easy to get yourself intimidated in racing. … This latest package we’re running, for whatever reason, seems to work for us.”
It’s especially easy to get intimidated in the K&N Pro Series garage. To the right is Red Bull Racing and points leader Cole Whitt. To the left is reigning series champ Ryan Truex, from the Michael Waltrip Racing stable. Three of the first four races this season have been won by Joe Gibbs Racing.
“You look around and it amazes you to just look around at your neighbors,” MacDonald said. “It’s impressive to watch those guys work and the equipment they have — I’m jealous. I always tell my guys we can learn from them, just by watching what they do.
“Having that involvement brings the whole series up a notch for all the guys in it.”
And as the competition level rises, MacDonald feels it’s more important than ever to represent New England’s racing community on the region’s signature circuit.
“It is kind of weird to look at that garage and see how much it’s changed, how few New England guys are there,” said MacDonald, who also won the inaugural ACT Invitational for northeast-based Late Models at New Hampshire in September. “But that also makes it so it’s more important for us to win at that one track, I think.
“For the other guys in the series, it’s a combined (weekend) with the Cup cars. Everyone wants to win with that kind of exposure, but maybe because it’s here at home, it gives us a little more desire to win.”
Sources: Travis Barrett/NASCARHomeTracks.com