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Heluva Good Feeling For MacDonald

LOUDON, N.H. - Eddie MacDonald outdueled Dale Earnhardt Inc. development driver Trevor Bayne over a wild eight-lap shootout, and then pulled away in his No. 71 Grimm Construction Chevrolet on the final green-white-checkered finish to pull the victory in the Heluva Good! Summer 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It was MacDonald's fourth career NASCAR Camping World Series East victory and first at the 'Magic Mile.' In 15 previous starts at the track, the Rowley, Mass. native had just two top 10s and a best finish of seventh.

"We've had a lot of fast cars here," MacDonald said, "but just haven't been able to finish."

Bayne, a rookie, was second in the No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet Chevrolet. His best finish of 2008 had been third, twice. And Matt Kobyluck (No. 40 Mohegan Sun Resort Chevrolet) matched his best career finish at New Hampshire with a third-place in his 25th start at the track. Point leader Austin Dillon was fourth and Ricky Carmichael fifth.

Dillon maintained his points lead, which is now at 48 over Kobyluck. Brian Ickler led 34 laps but was penalized for rough driving after an incident with Brad Leighton while the two battled for the lead on lap 104. Ickler worked his way back up to finish 10th and dropped to third in points at 731.

There were nine lead changes, but the most exciting came in the waning laps when MacDonald made a charge to the front following a restart with nine laps remaining. First Bayne moved ahead of Kobyluck, and then MacDonald passed both of them. Bayne edged back in front, but MacDonald pulled a cross-over move coming out of Turn 4 to take the lead back. Bayne pulled a similar move on the next lap, but his pass was negated when the caution flag came out on lap 122 for a car stalled in Turn 4.

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