Familiar Outcome for Michels

Rip Michels made a triumphant return to Irwindale Speedway on Saturday, winning the Lucas Oil Super Late Models season-opening race.

Michels, in his second season in the NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Series and its 2004 rookie of the year, finished 0.944 of a second ahead of Todd Southwell in the 75-lap feature race in front of an estimated 6,200.

Michels, driving a 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo, took the lead for good from Southwell on the 22nd lap and won his 39th race at the track.

“We’ve been running the tour, getting our butts kicked and it’s good to come here and race with your buddies,” Michels said.

The race was stopped on the 32nd lap because of a collision involving the 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo driven by Dan Moore and Jim McGill’s 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo that knocked McGill out of the race.

In the other races, Joe Ruggles won the Grand American Modified; Victor Vu won the Vista Paint Super Stocks; 16-year-old Austin Grabowski, a student at La Verne Damien High, won the Auto Club Late Models; and Ron Peterson won the Dodge Super Trucks race. Ruggles, Vu and Grabowski were first-time winners at the track.

-- Steven Herbert