'08 champ Giusti hungry for a victory

The 2008 Marysville Raceway Park mini-stock champion is winless, second in points and has had a pair of DNF's this season after not having one in the last three years.

Put simply, Joel Giusti is yearning for victory lane.

"I'm very hungry, this is the longest dry spell of my career," he said. "I'm going to try and turn my luck around a little bit. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully we can get another trophy."

The 23-year-old will be hoping to have his No. 17 ride in victory lane tonight for Performance Auto Supply Night at the quarter-mile clay oval. The five-division card is headlined by the Pacific 360 sprints and also includes the wingless sprints, the pro 4 sprints and the super stocks.

In the last five feature events, Giusti, a two-time champion at MRP, has just one top-5 finish, a third pace on May 23. With the string of bad luck, Giusti is 18 points behind leader Misty Castleberry.

But in his eyes, it's a deficit that can be made up very easily.

"We still have eight races left," said Giusti who also took the title in 2006. "In '06 with five races to go I was 40 points back. They're is still plenty of time."

What Giusti, a six year veteran of the series, doesn't forsee hapening is a move upward from the 4-cyclinder mini-stock class. While they are MRP's slowest cars, Giusti is content with the quality of racing the class produces.

"It's kind of entry level and it's not as expensive as other classes," said Giusti, who funds the majority of his operation after his own pocket. "It's a competitive car but when you wreck it doesn't cost thousands of dollars to fix it."

And Giusti has tried other classes, but he feels right at home in his black and yellow No. 17.

"I don't see the need or deisre to move," he said.

Pit gates open at 5 p.m. with qualifying set to begin at 6 p.m.