RPW Exclusive: Adam McAulffie Finally Got The Monkey Off His Back Friday At Albany-Saratoga

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – MALTA, NY – When I wrote about Adam McAuliffe and his team back in April, he had just come off two big wins to start his 2018 season off strong. But they were outside his home state.

McAuliffe was headed back up to New York with momentum, and was looking forward it. From then until Friday, July 13th, there was a monkey on Adam’s back.

“We haven’t been able to be consistent, let alone get back to victory lane, since our wins down south,” Adam said. “The car has been good. We’ve just missed setups, had bad luck and been caught up in messes on the race track.”

When the team pulled into Albany-Saratoga on Friday, they were set and ready to get a win. With no heats run, Adam rolled off from the number two spot in the feature and made the most of it.

Starting next to Pat Jones, Adam took the lead heading into turn one with the ‘Lunch Box’ Chad Edwards taking second and looked to stalk McAuliffe. He stayed close to the 234, but once they caught lap traffic, McAuliffe’s car took off. He looked to work around the whole race track and built a full straightaway lead before a caution flew with just a handful of laps to go.

That was the last thing Adam wanted to happen.

“I didn’t want to see that yelllow flag,” he said. “However, I stuck with what was working and beat Chad to turn one, and it stuck.”

Adam pulled away over those last few circuits and was able to get his first win of the season in New York state, and first this year at his Friday night home.

“It feels so good to get this monkey off my back,” he commented. “We just haven’t been able to put it together here in New York. I have to thank my whole crew, especially my brother Kyle and all my sponsors as well. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible. I really wanted to get this win like tomorrow doesn’t exist.”

Second place finisher Chad Edwards was, not surprisingly, upset about the second place finish, but was looking at the positives.

“We wanted to win for sure,” Edwards said. “However, Adam ran a great race and we didn’t have enough for him tonight. Hats off to him and his whole crew.”

The whole McAuliffe crew have had a lot going for them the past two weeks. Adam’s brother, EJ, won the Limited Sportsman feature at the track on July 6th and had a fourth to back that up, even with a broken right from shock tower. Those runs, along with Adam picking up his first win of the season at the “Great Race Place,” shows that this team is getting hot at the right time of the year.