RJ Johnson wins NASCAR Super Late Model season opener at Irwindale

IRWINDALE – RJ Johnson, in his debut for Position One Motorsports, won the NASCAR Super Late Model season opener at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Johnson, a two-time track champion at Irwindale, won in dominating fashion, taking the lead on lap 12 and pulling away for his first Super Late Model win at the track.
Jack Madrid and Jason Pattison collided on lap 73 of the 75-lapper. Pattison, who was running in third place at the time of the crash, hit the wall between Turn 1 and 2 and did not finish the race. Johnson won the race on a green-white-checkered flag finish.
Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, won the NASCAR Late Model championship at Irwindale last year and the Super Trucks championship at the track in 2009.
Ryan Partridge of Rancho Cucamonga was second, followed by Kevin Thompson of Conroe, Texas, in third. Thirteen cars started the Super Late Model opener.
Andrew Porter of La Verne won the S2 stock car race, but was disqualified when his car did not pass post-race inspection.
It would have been the first win of his career at Irwindale. He was disqualified for having illegal shocks on his car.
Andrew Anderson of Lancaster was awarded the win. He was followed by Jace Meier of Las Vegas in second.
The race featured Sebastian Labrie, a Dutch actor and driver from Holland. His entry in the race was filmed for a Dutch reality TV show, “Try Before You Die.” He came in third in the 10-car race.
Christian McGhee of La Verne won the Bandoleros race. He was followed by Ricky Schlick of Claremont in second and Brandon Weaver of Baker in third.
Haley Deegan, the daughter of freestyle motocross rider and X Games champion Brian Deegan, was entered in the race. She finished 13th.
Chad Schug of Oak Hills won the Legends Cars race. He is the reigning Legends Cars champion at the track and won one race last year. He had five runner-up finishes in 16 races in 2010.
Eric Gunderson of San Diego was second, followed by Brent Scheidemantle of Alta Loma in third.

Nick Joanides wins second NASCAR Super Late Model race in a row at Irwindale

Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills easily won the NASCAR Super Late Models race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale before 1,571 on Saturday night.
It was the second win in a row for Joanides, the reigning Super Late Model champion at Irwindale. His margin of victory was 1.578 seconds.
“It wasn’t as easy as it looked,” Joanides said. “I was driving for my life, getting as much distance between them. It’s a tough field. These cars that are here, there are a lot of good ones.”
Joanides said his team is running out of money and might not make it out for the next Super Late Model race in two weeks. He said his team will have to make a decision to either run the Super Late Model car or the Late Model car. Joanides is the reigning champion in both the Super Late Models and Late Models at Irwindale. He was 19th in the Late Model season opener last Saturday night.
“I’m just hoping we can come back in two weeks,” Joanides said.
Rookie Ryan Reed of Bakersfield was second, followed by Sergio Pena from Winchester, Va., a rookie in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. Pena nearly won the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale in January, finishing second to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano.
“This is my favorite track by far,” Pena said.
Reed and Pena battled for second place throughout the race. Randel King from Fullerton challenged for the runner-up spot on the final laps of the race, but finished in fourth.
“I was a little bit stressed, but I held my line,” Reed said. “(Pena) raced me clean. I have nothing but respect for him.”
There were only 13 cars to start the Super Late Model race. Ten cars finished on the lead lap.
In other races, Chad Schug of Oak Hills won the Legend Cars race. Brent Scheidemantle of Alta Loma was second, followed by Mark Iungerich of Granada Hills was third.
Dennis Croasmun of Alta Loma won his first NASCAR Mini Stocks race in nearly four years. He finished ahead of Daryl Scoggins of Sunland and Jacob Rogers of Riverside.
Rogers won the Mini Stocks season opener and leads the Mini Stocks standings after two races.
Luis Martinez Jr. of Long Beach won the S2 stock car race. Martinez is a rookie in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and finished 17th in Thursday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.
Martinez has more than a month off before his next West Series race at Iowa Speedway on May 23.
Travis Thirkettle, a driver from Fillmore, was second in the S2 race. He was followed by Roman Lagudi of Las Vegas.
Jeff Williams of Newbury Park won his second South West Tour Trucks race in row. He has won the first two races of the South West Tour Trucks season.
Michael Zimmerman of Hemet was second, followed by Neil Conrad of Arcadia.

Joanides takes one of two Super Late Model races at Irwindale

Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills won one of the two NASCAR Super Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. It was his 11th win of the season the Super Late Model division.
Joanides maintained his lead in the Super Late Model standings at the track.
Luis Martinez Jr. of Long Beach won the other Super Late Model race of the night. It was Martinez’s first Super Late Model win of the season and his best finish since coming in second place on opening night in March.
It was a night of twin 40-lap races for the Super Late Models. Martinez won the first race of the night. He was followed by Joanides in second and Danny Gay of Lakeside in third.
Joanides won the second race of the night. He was followed by Rip Michels of San Fernando in second and Mackena Bell of Carson City, Nev., a driver in NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, in third. It was Bell’s best finish at the track this season.
R.J. Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, added an S2 stock car win to his four NASCAR Super Trucks wins at the track. Johnson won his first S2 race and ended Randel King’s little two-race winning streak. Ryan Reed, the leader in the Legend Cars standings at the track, was making his debut in the S2 division. He finished second, followed by King.
Ken Brown of Cherry Valley won the NASCAR Super Stocks race, his first of the season. Eric Sunness of Chatsworth was second, followed by Rich DeLong III of Santa Clarita in third. Larry Cerquettini of Redlands, the leader in the Super Stocks standings and winner of the first seven races of the season at the track, was fifth.
Rod Schmitt of Alta Loma won the NASCAR Mini Stocks race, his first win of the season. Daryl Scoggins of Sunland, the leader in the Mini Stocks standings, was second in the race, followed by Jacob Rogers of Riverside in third.

Scott Dodd wins NASCAR Super Late Model race at Irwindale

It was a bad night to have the fastest car at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
Rip Michels, who started on the pole for the NASCAR Super Late Model race, led 46 laps, but dropped to the back of the field on the last restart. R.J. Johnson set the fastest time in qualifying for the NASCAR Super Trucks race, but fell from first to last about midway through the race because of a mechanical failure.
Scott Dodd of Mira Loma won Saturday night’s Super Late Model race, leading the last four laps of the 50-lap race. Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills was second, followed by Danny Gay of Lakeside.
It was the second win of the season for Dodd. Joanides, the leader in the Super Late Model standings, recorded his third runner-up finish of the season. He has four wins and three second-place finishes in seven Super Late Model races. Michels ended up in 13th place.
Bear Rzesnowiecky of Las Vegas and Travis Thirkettle of Newhall wrecked on lap 34. Rzesnowiecky was in a four-car battle for second place when he spun out in Turn 3. He came down and hit Thirkettle’s car head-on. Thirkettle’s car spun into the grass in turns 3 and 4. Rzesnowiecky’s car ended up on the track between turns 3 and 4. Neither driver was injured in the wreck. But neither car was able to return to the race.
Jeff Peterson of Riverside won his first race of the season in the NASCAR Super Trucks. He was the fourth different winner in five Super Trucks races at the track this year. Grant Hebner of Fallbrook was second, followed by Ron Peterson, Jeff Peterson’s father, in third.
Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, the leader in the Super Trucks standings, was fifth. Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, was the race leader for the first part of the race, but fell out of contention on a restart after a caution on lap 26. He finished in 13th place in the 14-truck field.
Mintey has two wins in the Super Trucks division. Mason Britton, Jeff Peterson and Johnson each have one win.
Darren Amidon of Santee won his second race in a row in the Legends division. He missed the first two races of the Legends Car season at the track. Ryan Reed of Bakersfield was second, followed by Brent Scheidemantle of Alta Loma was third.
Brandon Toy of Bakersfield, the leader in the Legends Car standings at the track, was fifth.
Mark Iungerich of Grande Hills flipped his car on the second lap of the Legends race. He crashed into the Turn 3 wall on the third-mile oval. He walked away from the crash after emergency crews cut him out of his wrecked race car.
Ryan Cansdale of Menifee won his third race in a row in the Bandoleros. Christian McGee from LaVerne was second and Mikael Lovas of Murrieta was third.

Luis Martinez makes impressive run at Irwindale

Luis Martinez Jr., a driver from Long Beach, opened some eyes at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Martinez finished second in the NASCAR Super Late Model season opener, rallying through the field and challenging race winner Nick Joanides in the closing laps.
No one's eyes were bigger than Joanides' when he saw Martinez in his rear view mirror on the last lap of the race.
If the race went a few more laps than the scheduled 100, Martinez had a chance to run down Joanides.
Click here for a video of how Martinez described the last laps of the Super Late Model race at Irwindale.

Joanides wins Super Late Model season opener at Irwindale

Nick Joanides won the season opener in the NASCAR Super Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
The driver from Woodland Hills, the reigning Super Late Model champion at the track, overhauled his car after qualifying. In a way, he was a bit lucky. He qualified eighth, but an inverted start put him on the front row. He took the lead in the 100-lap race on the second lap and held on for the rest of the race.
Click here for a video of Joanides talking about the changes his team made to his car and how he won the race.