Race weekends just can’t get much worse for a team then it did this weekend for MacDonald Motorsports. Coming home with a wrecked race car is one thing. Wrecking both cars together on the 1st lap is another. After contact with the 14 car in turn 3, Donnie Neuenberger was sent spinning up the track. Teammate Blake Koch had nowhere to go but into Donnie and the wall, ending his day. Donnie was able to continue with a beat up race car and salvage a 33rd place finish.
Practice however, went quite well for both cars as Blake was running very competitive times for his first appearance at the Monster Mile. When the session was over, Blake had the Daystar.com No. 82 Dodge 21st on the time sheets. Donnie’s Eagle Convenience Stores No. 81 was 35th. Blake’s confidence to qualify the No. 82 Dodge into the race on time was much higher after his strong practice run. Rain spoiled that for the second straight weekend and the lineup was set by practice times, not including cars not locked in. This put Donnie 27th on the grid and Blake back in 33rd, but at least in the race.
Both MacDonald Motorsports driver’s were confident they could move up throughout the course of the 200 laps. Unfortunately, they didn’t even make it through one of those laps cleanly. The accident in turn 3 put Blake’s car out of the race, and ended his streak of 11 races with no DNF’s to start his NASCAR Nationwide Series career. Donnie was able to continue on in his Eagle Convenience Stores No. 81 and manage a 33rd place result.
The 33rd from Donnie after the crash really helped the team out in the 2011 Owner’s standings. The No. 81 car only dropped 1 spot in the standings to 27th and still sits 15 points ahead of 31st. Despite the accident, Blake remains 23rd in the current driver’s standings and Donnie Neuenberger stayed 31st.
MacDonald Motorsports PR
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