No stranger to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he has won three times in K&N Pro Series East races in 2008 and 2009, Eddie MacDonald says his familiarity with the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon, N.H., will help him feel at home when he makes NASCAR Sprint Cup debut in Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301. ‘Absolutely,’ said MacDonald, 34, of Rowley. ‘We’re going to have many challenges, just trying to compete at that level, but at least we can take the challenge of trying to figure out the track out of the equation. I think that’s going to be huge for us . . . for me, anyway.’ MacDonald made his Nationwide Series (2007) and Camping World Truck Series (2010) debuts at NHMS, in addition to making starts in K&N Pro Series and Whelen Modified Tour events at The Magic Mile. But MacDonald will complete the cycle Sunday, making him the only active NASCAR driver to have raced in all five touring divisions. MacDonald will be pulling double duty this weekend, driving the #71 Chevy in the K&N Pro Series race Friday, then, on Sunday, piloting the #32 Ford fielded by co-owners Archie St. Hilaire of Saco, Maine, and Frank Stoddard, of North Haverhill, N.H., a former Cup crew chief turned NBC analyst.
MacDonald will be steering an All-New England enterprise, with the efforts of driver and owner intertwining with that of a New England-based sponsor, Michael Alden, of Beverly, whose Blue Vase Marketing company paired with the #32 this season as primary sponsor at Phoenix and Las Vegas and as an associate sponsor at Bristol. ‘I’m just so excited that Archie St. Hilaire gave me this opportunity along with Mike Alden,’ said MacDonald, who grew up around racing when his father, Red MacDonald, acquired the paved oval at Lee (N.H.) USA Speedway in 1986. ‘It’s going to be exciting that we’re going to be a completely New England deal with three New England guys racing together.’
The idea to run MacDonald at NHMS was hatched at a lunch meeting earlier this year when St. Hilaire met with Alden to discuss the #32’s plans. Alden asked St. Hilaire if there was any New England driver they could put in their car at NHMS. St. Hilaire initially drew a blank, but, on the drive home, came up with a perfect solution. ‘That’s when Eddie’s name came up,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘I took Eddie over to meet Michael and he said, ‘This is the great. It’s the best of all worlds.’ We had me and Frank owning the team, we had Eddie, who had been around New Hampshire and been around the area forever, and we had Mike, who wanted to sponsor it. It’s going to be exciting and we’ve already had a ton of calls from people.’
Even NHMS track officials have gotten behind the effort, offering an ‘Eddie Mac Pack’ ticket package for $32, in honor of MacDonald’s car number which, coincidentally, team officials chose as a way of honoring long-time New England racing legend, Stub Fadden.
If MacDonald were to turn some heads by doing so, could it lead to something more than just a one-shot deal on the Cup side? ‘You know, I’ve got some races open later in the year on tracks that he’s raced at,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘If this works out, I’m going to give him another shot. I love the guy. He and his Dad are just old New England racers. We all work hard up here and it’s just a different type of tight-knit people, so why not? I’m not hooked to anybody for the season. We don’t have any long-term contract with a driver. If we can put another team together for the next Loudon race or at Bristol, yeah, we’d entertain that.’(Boston Globe), see an image of the car on the #32 Team Scheme page.
