ANOTHER WIN FOR J&M RACING
(08-09-08) The J&M Racing team with Jackson Race cars scored their ninth win in the past 13 races in the Nascar AC Delco Super Late Model Division and extended their point lead from 24 to 40 points over Travis Thirkettle.
With a strong field of 27 cars at the race track, driver Nick Joanides was the 23rd car out to qualify. He missed the pole by just 8/1000ths of a second on his first lap but gained nearly a full tenth on his second lap to score the teams, record, 10th consecutive fast time of the season. It was also their 12th fast time out of 14 qualifying sessions, tying them for that record as well.
The top two cars were inverted for the start, putting Auggie Vidovich on the pole for the start of the first of two main events scheduled for the night. Vidovich is a Craftsman Truck and Southwest Series Touring veteran driver who currently is employed by Nascar Sprint Cup Series Owner, Jack Roush, as a test driver. Joanides got a great start and was ahead by a nose entering turn one. Vidovich overshot the entry to the corner and nearly ran Joanides into the wall. Joanides quickly backed out of the gas which allowed third place running David Beat to pull along side. Coming off of turn two, Beat got loose and got into the side of Joanides. The contact allowed David Ross to get by as well. Joanides was fourth at the lap 3 restart and was able to get back by both Ross and Beat to score a second place finish.
The second race was started based on the finish of the first, leaving Vidovich and Joanides another chance to put on a show for the fans. Joanides again got a great start and the two drivers battled cleanly side by side through the first three laps with Joanides leading each lap. Exiting turn two, third place running Andrew Allen decided to try and put his nose in between the two cars and made contact with the rear of both Joanides and Vidovich. The contact sent both cars sideways and into each other and caused Joanides to spin down the back straightaway. Joanides did an amazing job of driving through the spin and managed to get the car to the apron and out of harms way of the field. Going backwards at full speed, he whipped the front end back around and got the car pointed back in the right direction and pulled back on the track, losing just one position to Allen.
Since Joanides never lost momentum, he was able to retain his position behind Vidovich and Allen. Nascar officials however decided to throw a caution to penalize Allen for the contact, who was then sent to the rear of the field. Due to the track rules that revert the lineup back to the last completed green flag lap, Joanides was put back in front of Vidovich for the restart. With significant damage to the entire left side of the car, Joanides still pulled away from the field on the restart and held on to take the win.
"These guys beat up on us tonight" said Joanides. "I expected a little more respect from a driver like Auggie in the first race and Andy Allen showed no patience in the second race. Both situations could have been a disaster for us, so I feel very fortunate just to get out of here with the car still rolling, The two top 2 finishes are just a bonus!. At least Auggie was respectful and took responsibility and apologized for it"
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