Opening night at Irwindale Speedway

Doug McComb, David Beat and Joe Herold were opening night winners at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night.
McComb, the 2004 NASCAR Late Model track champion, won Saturday night's Late Model race in a borrowed car.
Beat won the NASCAR Super Late Model division race that featured five track champions.
Herold won the NASCAR Super Trucks race on a green-white-checkered finish.
McComb, a driver from Thousand Oaks, might have won the only race he will enter this year. He was in a car usually driven by Marty Wallace. But Wallace offered to let McComb race his car. McComb won the race and now wants to continue his season. But he lacks the funding to continue racing. If he can't find the money to race, he won't be able to return to the track.
Rip Michels, one of the five past track champions in the Super Late Model race, said that his car was fast, but it was not quite ready for racing. His team has been putting together his car for the past few weeks and it still wasn't finished for opening night. Still, Michels set the fastest qualifying time. And his goal was to finish the race with the car intact and continue to work on it.
“I just want to get out of here in one piece,” said Michels, driver of the No. 12 Ford, “whether it’s first, fourth or fifth.”
He finished 27th, but kept his car in one piece.
Rod Johnson, another past track champion in the Super Late Model race, was back with a new car built by Dave Jackson.
Jackson, who has a shop based in Palmdale, has a number of cars in the Super Late Model division. Newhall’s Travis Thirkettle, Canyon Country’s Cory Fancy and defending Super Late Model champion Van Knill of Tucson, Ariz., are among those racing cars built by Jackson.
“I’ve wanted one for a long time,” said Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country.
Johnson looked a little frustrated before the races started. He said his car was giving him fits through qualifying.
“It’s been real good in practice,” Johnson said. “But it didn’t run as well as I wanted it to.”
He finished the race in 11th, the highest among the past champions.
Tim Huddleston’s High Point Racing team in the NASCAR Late Model division was off to a good start.
Chris Carmody, one of his drivers, set fast time in qualifying for the NASCAR Late Model race.
“It’s one of the oldest cars at the track,” said Huddleston. “It’s the very first car I ever raced at Irwindale.”
Huddleston, driver and owner of the four-car High Point Racing team and an Agoura Hills resident, was third fastest in qualifying.
His other two cars, driven by Scott Jenkins of Portland, Ore., and Jace Meier of Las Vegas qualified in the top 12. Jenkins was 11th and Meier was 12th.