Joanides still in the hunt for two titles

Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills has a chance to win track championships in two divisions at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

He has a 12-point lead in the NASCAR Super Late Models at the track after winning one of two 40-lap races on Saturday night.

He is in second place, 36 points behind Andrew Myers of Huntington Beach, in the NASCAR Late Model division at the track. The Late Models will be racing at Irwindale on Saturday night.

He has a way to go to catch Myers, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

"It's possible," Joanides said. "We've given away our bad races. I figure you're allowed one or two. Andy hasn't had a bad race yet."

Drivers at Irwindale do not usually have the opportunity to race in two divisions, let alone with two quality cars. Joanides is in that rare situation. He was hired by Loyd McGhee late last season as a replacement driver for his J&M Construction/Mr. Crane sponsored Late Model. Joanides went on to win four of the seasons final six races.

He took over the lead in the Super Late Model standings with a win and third-place finish in two races at the track on Saturday night. It was his sixth Super Late Model win of the year, and he rattled off five straight wins at one point.

But a 24th-place finish on the opening night for Super Late Models put Joanides in a deep hole. He lost his clutch during the opening-night race and completed only nine laps of a 50-lap race. His next race in the Super Late Models wasn't much better. He was the last car on the lead lap and finished 14th.

"I gave everybody about a 64-point head start," Joanides said. "We've made up those 64 points."

He won the third race of the year, the start of his five-race winning streak, and has not finished worse than third in his past eight races.

Winning Late Model races has been more challenging. Myers started the year with five straight wins, but lately has run into some problems, the competition has stepped up their game. 

Tim Huddleston broke Myers' streak of consecutive wins on May 24 and Joanides won his first Late Model race of the year on June 7. "This isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was" Myers said.

Joanides will get a chance to cut into Myers' lead Saturday night when the Late Models race.

NASCAR Super Stocks, West Coast Pro Trucks, Legend Cars, Pure Stocks and figure8s are scheduled to race Saturday night. Gates open at 4 p.m. Races start at 7.