Joanides Scores First Top 5 Finish of Season for Speed Wong Racing 

(04-14-07) Nick Joanides headed into his first true test with his new team with high expectations, both from the driver himself and the Speed Wong Racing team. The team had a rough start to the year due to many things beyond their control. "This team is the most well organized team I've ever driven for and owner, Darryl Wong provides them with all the resources they need to be up front every week" said Joanides. The first event threw most of the good teams a curveball as it was the first event run on Hoosier tires. The best the team could muster was a 16th and 21st place finish in the opening event. This was actually among the best results for teams expected to be upfront as Multi-Time Champ and Race Winner Rip Michels managed only a 27th place finish. Current Champion, Van Knill only a 20th place finish.

The team worked very quickly to resolve the tire problems and their work appeared to be showing in the next event, qualifying two of the three cars in the top 5. Unfortunately the rough start wasn't ready to end. One car over-heated early in the event and the two others were involved in accidents taking them out of the race after one of them had led for several laps.

  The next race weekend appeared was going to be more of the same. Although all of the cars were high on the practice leader board. One had a mechanical problem in qualifying, causing the car to get into the wall. The remaining two cars earned solid starting positions and would line up 3rd and 10th for the main event. The start of the Main Event however offered no additional hope for a turn around as one of the two remaining cars was hit from behind by another car and put into the wall, ending his day after just four laps. Driver Nick Joanides, witnessing all the heartbreak, knew he had to try and stop the bleeding as he was the last hope for a positive result on this day. From his 10th starting position, he quickly moved into 7th, easily running down the top 6 cars. The car he was battling with for sixth was running different racing lines each lap, leaving Nick little room to pass. Not wanting to chance getting caught up in a wreck, he stayed extremely patient and methodically worked to get around. With 8 laps to go, he was finally able to take the position and proceeded on to pass two more cars and bring home a solid 4th place finish for the team. 

"I'm very Thankful to Darryl Wong and the entire Speed Wong Racing team for such a great opportunity to compete in equipment that is second to none. This team is just incredible and it truly is an honor for me to be included in their driver line up. With the equipment that this team has and crew chief Dean Klock, it's inevitable that we'll end up in Victory Lane very soon" commented Joanides.

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