JOANIDES TAKEN OUT OF ANOTHER SOLID FINISH

Nick Joanides and the Colorfast/Jackson Race cars team headed to Stockton with high hopes and looking to continue their march toward the top 10 in the standings after having run solidly in the top 5 in the past two events. The team was again among the fastest cars in practice, however the qualifying set of tires loosened up the car, but Nick still managed to post a solid top 10 qualifying run. At the start of the race, Nick quickly charged forward and by lap 15 had settled into the 6th position. 

With the cars being impounded after qualifying, the team could not make changes to correct the loose condition, so Nick patiently tried to save the tires for the end of the race and it appeared to be paying off as mid-way through the race, he began to close the gap on the top 5 cars, when Tracy Bolin, driver of the number 02 car nailed Nick in the rear in the center of turns 1 and 2. The contact caused Nick to spin and although he was able to complete a 360 spin without hitting anything, when he pushed in the clutch to shift into first and get going again, the car stalled. The delay was just enough that the leaders went by, putting Nick one lap down. Craig Raudman, the eventual winner was on a rail and although Nick could run among the top 5 cars, he did not have quite enough to get his lap back. He did however stage a furious battle with Eddie McKean over the final 25 laps, who also got spun earlier in the race and fell a lap down, to finish in the 14th position and the first car one lap down. 

"It's very disappointing that we got taken out" said Nick. "We've been a solid top 5 car over the past three races and have finally gotten our car working really good again, only to have the 02 car blatantly take us out. He never even tried to pass me, as soon as he got there, he just ran over me and took us out and then from what I heard, took out another couple of cars after that. I guess he needs to learn how to race instead of just playing bumper cars", Joanides continued. Even though their finish was far from what they had hoped for, the team still managed to close ground and gain nearly 50 points on the top 10 in the standings in their effort to make the All-Star Shootout at the end of the year.