JOANIDES TAKES TWO 2009 CHAMPIONSHIPS AT IRWINDALE
(10-03-09) - By Ed Hollowell - IRWINDALE, CA -Nick
Joanides won his third Auto Club Late Model main of the year and, more
importantly he took the series title for 2009. It was an historic win
that made Nick Joanides the first driver to win two series
championships in the same year and they were in the top two series at
Irwindale, the ACDelco Super Late Models and the Auto Club Late Models.
Joanides came into the night leading Tim Huddleston by 34 points and
finished fourth in the first 40 lap race of the night which was won by
Mike Johnson with Huddleston second. In the final race Huddleston finished fifth while Nick won. It was Joanides third Late Model
win of the season while Huddleston won six times but Joanides was
never out of the top ten and that consistency gave him the season title.
In the first race Joanides and Huddleston shared the front row with Mike
Johnson being the fastest qualifier with a 18.837 second qualifying lap.
Huddleston took the early lead and Johnson passed him on the inside on
lap 29 and led all the remaining laps. The second race was gridded with the
cars in order of the finish of the first race and Huddleston took off in
the lead at the start in that race as well. Johnson kept pressure on
Huddleston and nosed him out at the start line on the seventh lap but
Huddleston took the lead back the next lap. That was as good as it got
for Johnson in the second race as he began to slide back. Joanides
passed Johnson on Lap 14 and Travis Irving passed him two laps later.
Johnson would finish fourth.
Huddleston lead until lap 21 when Joanides got tired of
following him and took the lead. Joanides took a comfortable lead in a
short amount of time and was six to eight car lengths ahead for most of
the remainder of the race. The one time which Joanides lead was in
danger was on a restart on lap 24 when Huddleston went into the first
turn far too fast and actually passed Nick. He paid for his bad judgment
by nearly hitting the wall in turn two where Joanides passed him to lead
once more. Huddleston slid back to sixth place. By the end of the race
Huddleston had recovered to finish fifth.
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