LOUDON, N.H. – Last June at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Reid Lanpher used a last lap pass of Eddie MacDonald to win the Granite State Pro Stock Series feature at the New England Short Track Showdown.
Sunday MacDonald made sure there would be no replay of a last lap disappointment at the track where he’s had so much success in his career.
MacDonald used some door banging coming to the checkered to hold off the charges of Michael Hopkins to win the 50-lap Pro All Stars Series feature at the New England Short Track Showdown Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It was the 11thcareer victory in four different divisions at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for MacDonald, of Rowley, Mass. MacDonald has three NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wins in Loudon, five American-Canadian Tour victories, two Pro All Stars Series wins and one Granite State Pro Stock Series victory.
Kyle Busch leads all drivers in track history with 12 victories. Busch has three in NASCAR Monster Energy Cup wins, six NASCAR XFINITY Series victories and three NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series wins at NHMS. MacDonald had been tied with the late Ted Christopher and Mike Stefanik for second on the all-time wins list with 10 victories before Sunday.
Hopkins, of Hermon, Me. was second and Derek Griffith of Hudson, N.H. third.
Hopkins took a look under MacDonald for the lead on lap 49 but then settled back into second. On the final lap Hopkins got a run off of turn four to get to MacDonald’s side coming to the frontstretch. From there the two made contact multiple times coming to the checkered, with MacDonald edging Hopkins as they crossed under the checkered side-by-side.
“That was tough racing with Hopkins,” MacDonald said. “He was definitely fast. He probably had the car to beat. He was really good to me. We were racing hard – door to door – and banging on each other coming to the checkered. Luckily for us we were able to come out on top. I really wanted to win this one bad. It’s been a long year without any wins. To be able to come here and get a win … it was awesome.”
Said Hopkins: “I tried everything. This place is such a momentum race track. I could get to him, we were better than him at the end. I could get to him, get to his bumper. I tried to push him and twist him and everytime I’d do that I’d just kill my momentum. So I set him up, lifted early getting into [turn] three to cross him over [on the final lap] and it was just a drag race and he came down into me and body slammed me, and I body slammed him. And he just got me by a couple feet. I’ll take it.”
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