Versatile Eddie MacDonald To Be Extremely Busy In ’17

Column By: MATTHEW WIERNASZ / RPW – ROWLEY, MA – Eddie MacDonald will run in many different series in 2017. He will run in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for Robert Grimm Racing, PASS North Super Late Model Series, ACT Tour, and the Granite State Pro Stock Series. MacDonald is planning to run the U.S. Short Track Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway on May 21st and the Oxford 250 later this summer.

” We’re looking forward to competing in all of them and hopefully we can be competitive in each one of those series.” MacDonald Said

MacDonald will kickoff his 2017 season this weekend with the PASS race at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park followed by the ACT Tour opener next weekend at Lee USA Speedway. With the PASS North Super Late Models having some tough competition, MacDonald looks forward to the challenge.

” That’s whats great about the challenge to go and run against the best in the Northeast or the country. Hopefully we can get our super late model figured out. Get a little more competitive with that. I’d love to be able to get some wins with that car.” MacDonald Said

MacDonald will make his season debut in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday April 22nd.

MacDonald was runner up in the ACT Tour points last season. MacDonald and ACT Tour car owner Freddie Patterson decided not to go with a full schedule this season on the ACT Tour. A race MacDonald has always been good at is the ACT Tour Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Other races the team would consider racing is Seekonk Speedway on July 15th, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday August 5th and the season finale at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on October 14th.

MacDonald had a lot of good races with the ACT car in 2016 as he got to win a few races.

ACT Tour President Tom Curley will be entering his 40th season of racing. Curley has done a lot for short track racing with the ACT Tour including growing the late model division at short tracks all over. Some of the Southern New England tracks run their Late Model division under ACT Tour rules.

” He’s done a great job. Hes very passionate about the sport and his series and he’s really created a fun tour to race and made the cars really competitive. You can go to any ACT race and you really don’t know who is going to win. He’s done a great job. Creating a tour that allows guys to race and its pretty affordable too which is good with how everything is changing in racing and getting so expensive. He’s done a great job with that. Really thank him for doing such a good job with all of it and give us a fun tour to race on.” MacDonald Said

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will make a visit to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Saturday July 8th. Thompson will do a NASCAR Busch North Throwback that weekend. MacDonald won back in 2005. He would like to go back to Thompson that weekend and be competitive and go with a good setup and feels it would be awesome to get another win there.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East has changed over time. The series used to be the old NASCAR Busch North Series and travel to tracks all over New England. Back in 2007, we saw the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams used that series as development for their future drivers such as Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Trevor Bayne, Chase Elliott, and many others.

” Its crazy to think about that because I still remember the first year I got involved in it. That’s been a lot of fun too and I got to go to some great tracks with the K&N Series. Look forward to running with those guys and its definitely gotten difficult with how much technology has come into the series. It gets tougher and tougher each year to keep up.” MacDonald Said

MacDonald ran in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series the last couple years at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the July race. MacDonald will not be running in the July race this season.

MacDonald and his crew chief Rollie LaChance have had good chemistry over the years winning some of the biggest races.

” Luckily its been great to get hooked up with Rollie. We work really well together. He can understand what I am saying and what I need. Its huge to be able to have a crew chief is on the same page. We have a lot of fun together.” MacDonald Said

MacDonald’s goals for 2017 is to win in each series he enters. That would be one of his biggest goals and try to be competitive in every race and try to get as many wins as he can.

The PASS North Super Late Models will practice and qualify on Saturday and have their 75 lap feature on Sunday at the Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.