Nick Joanides
Nicholas Joanides (born June 17, 1970) is an American professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the ARCA Menards Series West, driving the No. 71 Ford for Jan's Towing Racing. He has also competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (when it was the Nationwide Series), ARCA Menards Series East (when it was the NASCAR Busch East Series), and the now-defunct AutoZone Elite Division Southwest & Midwest Series in the past. Racing careerIn 2009, Joanides became the first driver in the history of Toyota Speedway at Irwindale to win championships in the top two premier divisions, and he did so in the same season. 2009 saw Joanides win the NASCAR AC-Delco Super Late Model Championship, NASCAR Auto Club Late Model Championship, NASCAR Whelen All-American Series California State Championship, and the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 Championship. He ended up third in the NASCAR All-American Series National standings. In total, Joanides competed in 42 races and scored 17 wins, 33 podiums, 37 top 5, and 41 top 10 finishes.[1][2] On October 17, Joanides announced that he would be joining Rick Ware Racing for his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Memphis Motorsports Park on October 24, 2009.[3] Joanides retired from full-time racing following the 2010 season. He came out of retirement late in 2015. Through the first 35 events, posted 15 wins and 26 top 5 finishes. In 2016, an engine failure in the third event of the 2016 season resulted in a 32 point loss. Joanides would go on to finish 2nd in the final point standings, 24 points shy of the championship.[citation needed] Joanides returned to Performance P-1 Motorsports in 2018 for a part-time schedule in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, scoring a top-5 finish at All American Speedway in Roseville, CA.[4] He returned to the team in 2021 for a one-race deal in the 4th of July weekend race at Irwindale Speedway, posting the team's only top-10 finish of the season.[5] Joanides had one scheduled start in 2022 for Performance P-1 Motorsports in the March Race at Irwindale. With no other race on his schedule, Joanides was called by team owner Lowden Motorsports late in the afternoon to fill in for their driver, who was suffering from food poisoning. Joanides arrived just before the race, with no practice, qualifying or power steering, brought home The Hard Charger award by passing the most cars in coming from last on the grid to finish 11th. [6][7] On September 17, 2022, Joanides entered his first Spears SRL Pro-Late Model Series race and came away with the win. He nearly backed it up a year later, falling just short to finish 2nd in the same event. In 2023, Joanides competed in five of the first eight ARCA West series races for #77 PP1M Team. On September 25, 2023, it was announced that Joanides would drive for the newly formed #71 Jan's Racing team owned by Jan Qualkenbush of Jan's Towing, beginning at All-American Speedway, the site of his career best ARCA West Series finish. The team has since announced that for the first time in Joanides' career, he will run the full West Series schedule in 2024. Thus far in 2024, Joanides has posted two top-5 and three top-10 finishes in each of the three short track races, including winning his first Pole Award at Irwindale Speedway on July 6th. Motorsports career resultsNASCAR(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) Nationwide Series
Busch East Series
ARCA Menards Series(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
ARCA Menards Series West
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