Eddie MacDonald Registers An Eighth Place Finish
for New Triple Crown Race Team

By Dick Casey---Triple Crown Racing

Eddie MacDonald accomplished the first goal for the newly formed Triple Crown race team with a top ten finish in the Aubuchon 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway. The veteran Busch North Series veteran’s eighth place run served notice that the One Stop Toy Shop entry will be a team to be watched this season. Despite a couple of first race jitters, the team rebounded under the steady shoe of the Rowley, Mass. driver for an impressive first race finish.

Following last week’s third fastest practice run at Thompson, MacDonald was the only driver to crack the 20 second barrier in practice on the fast half-mile oval. With two qualifying laps, the team was sure their second lap would put them in pole contention. However, a one-lap penalty was given for qualifying due to the team exceeding a time limit rule. Despite the penalty, MacDonald recorded a fast lap time of 20.111 seconds, good for a tenth place starting position.

“I don’t know what happened that we got the one lap penalty but it was too bad because we really had a fast car and who knows what we could have done on the second lap,” said a disappointed MacDonald. “We were so fast in practice, we were hoping for our first pole that would have been great for our new team, everyone has been working so hard.”

More surprises hit the team when the car would not start and had to be pushed out onto the track. The car did fire but then the radio did not work. MacDonald could not talk to crew chief Rollie LaChance, nor could he hear anything. A set of hand signals was used in order to communicate and that made the team’s first pit stop a rather dicey proposition. LaChance positioned himself at the turn to pick up any visual clues as to what the car was doing.

“The car was handling well for the first part of the race but then it started getting real loose but it was real frustrating because I couldn’t tell Rollie what I needed. When I did come in we changed right side tires and added a spring rubber and that really helped out a lot,” said MacDonald. “We had been running in the top ten for the first 60 laps and when we pitted on lap 69, we got the car good again but I used up the car getting back up through traffic and didn’t have any tires left at the end.”

The #77 Chevy moved quickly through the field and into seventh place at the 100-lap mark and was all over Dale Quarterley’s bumper but just couldn’t make the pass. On lap 137, MacDonald tried the outside to make the pass but slid up the track allowing Mike Olsen to make an inside pass to take the spot from MacDonald who said,” I had to try to get the spot from Dale but I was just too loose. I figured “what the heck”, there were only a few laps left and I tried to get one more spot but I ended up losing one but it was worth a shot.”

MacDonald was very pleased with the teams performance saying, “We’re happy because we were real quick in practice and with the problems we had like losing a lap in qualifying, and with everything else that happened, it wasn’t that bad of a day and we are really looking forward to Holland. Everyone on the team is just upbeat now so we hope to capitalize on it.”