Source: David Grayson
Date: 07/21/2008

One has to believe that Nick Joanides truly loves the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale simply because he's having a fabulous season racing on the fastest half mile oval in the west. Joanides scored another feature win, July 19th, in the Auto Club Late Model division. It was the Woodland Hills-California driver's third series win of 2008 and second consecutive win. All of that is on top of seven feature wins in the AC Delco Super Late Model division at the southern California track.

Travis Irving led the 22 starters under the initial green flag and led the first lap before Joanides made what would turn out to be the winning move of the race. He went on to lead the remaining 39 laps and crossed under the checkers 1.564 seconds ahead of Tim Huddleston. Irving was third while Mike Johnson and Beau Debard completed the top five. The race only had one yellow flag on lap 20 when a spin out triggered a four car accident in turn two.

After parking his J&M Construction Chevrolet into victory lane a very happy Joanides said "it was a very good points night for us. I was told that (series points leader) Andrew Myers got sixth tonight and I take it that this will get us caught up and we're now dead even at the top of the points. That should make for a fun championship run for the rest of the year. In all honesty it's about who starts on the front row. If Tim, (Huddleston), would have started up front he would have won tonight. This is a highly competitive class."

Racing returns to the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale next Saturday night, July 26th. It's Auto Club of Southern California Night at the speedway and club card holders will be admitted free. The fans will be treated to action from the Auto Club Late Models and the AC Delco Super Late Models who will be running twin main events. Joanides will be competing in three separate races. There will also be racing action from the Vista Paint Super Stocks, the Justice Brothers Mini Stocks and the Legends.

Source: Tim Kennedy
Date: 07/21/2008

IRWINDALE, California -- "Slick" Nick Joanides led 39 of 40 laps in the NASCAR Auto Club Late Model Series in the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale feature event Saturday. It was his third victory in the last four ACLM main events. More than 4,000 spectators watched Joanides continue his impressive "career year" on family night. Staff from the TV show "Deal or No Deal" were present also to recruit contestants for the popular NBC-TV program. His third ACLM feature victory in ten events this season moved Joanides from second place into a first place tie at 442 points. Co-leader and season-long point leader Andrew Myers began the year with five consecutive ACLM feature triumphs. Myers retains the top spot on the point chart based on the NASCAR tie-breaking system. He has five feature triumphs to three for Joanides.

Joanides is attempting to accomplish something at the ten year old speedway that no one has come close to doing. The former NASCAR Elite Division touring series driver driver from Woodland Hills has won seven of 11 NASCAR AC Delco Super Late Model TS@I features in 2008 and leads SLM points by 16. Joanides is pursuing the unprecedented feat of winning championships in both of the track's Whelen All-American Series top series at the track—the SLM and late model titles. No driver at the half-mile Irwindale track has ever won both the SLM and late model division titles. Remarkably, Joanides hopes to win both driving championships in the same season.

The 37-year old ACLM winner drove the Loyd McGhee-owned J & M Construction/Mr. Crane Chevy Monte Carlo. Joanides started second and trailed pole-starter Travis Irving closely for one lap before going to the inside leaving the fourth turn on lap two and making his winning pass. He won by 35-yards (1.564-seconds) over fastest qualifier Tim Huddleston, whose Justice Brothers High-Point Distributing Chevy took second spot from Irving on the fourth lap. Irving held on for third place, 3.258 seconds in back of the winner. It was his first podium finish and bettered his career-best feature finish by two positions. Irving drove his No. 85 CHP/Great Central Transport Chevy. With 23 late models present, Mike Johnson started eighth and finished fourth in his Monte Carlo in a 22-car field.

Beau DeBard, a 21-year old 2007 season USAC Ford Focus Midget Series graduate from Reno, made his first ACLM appearance on the Irwindale half-mile. The Ron Sutton Winner's Circle driver development program participant won two USAC FF Midget features last year, including one on Irwindale's third-mile driving the No. 42 Sutton FF Midget. With a one race rental of one of Huddleston's High-Point Distributing late models, DeBard subbed for fellow USAC driver Ryan Kaplan, who competed in an open-wheel midget race elsewhere. DeBard drove Huddleston's HPD No. 51 2008 Ford Fusion, the only non-Chevy in Huddleston's six-car ACLM fleet to a fifth place finish.

Myers, the second fastest qualifier, started third in a four-car inverted start. He ran fourth to lap eight when DeBard passed the series point leader. Johnson moved by both Myers and DeBard on a lap 22 restart following the only caution of the 21-minute race. Mike Varela, Lindsey King, rookie Miles Copenhaver and 2001 SLM track champion/16th starter Sean Woodside completed the top ten. Eighteen of 22 cars on the grid finished; 17 drivers completed all 40 laps. The lap 22 incident between the first two corners involved four cars and sidelined two of them. Eighth place rookie Colin Fleming, the June 21 feature winner, got tapped by ninth place Brandon Loverock, who drove Gerald Lair's Chevy for the second time. Fleming spun out in the inside groove and got hit by 12th place Logan Henson and Travis Motley. King spun out of tenth position to avoid her spinning teammate Fleming. She resumed in her position after the caution with approval of race control staff. The Fleming and Henson cars were too damaged to continue. Motley's car resumed but was the only car lapped at the finish.

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