Joey Saldana set a career high in 2007 with the World of Outlaws winning 12 A-Feature events over the course of that nearly 80-race season. The second generation driver matched that mark on Wednesday night at 34 Raceway in Iowa, winning for the 12th time in 2009 in just the 34th race of the season as he looks to eclipse his career high for victories with the series this season.
Saldana started on the pole and led the first 11 laps before Donny Schatz got around him on the 12th lap and would pace the next 20 circuits. After a thrilling battle in traffic that saw Saldana continually use the high side of the track before ducking under Schatz to take the lead on the 32nd lap. A late caution set up a green-white-checker finish that saw the race extended an extra go-around to 36 laps.
The win for Saldana aboard the Budweiser Maxim was the 51st of his World of Outlaws career, which moved him into a tie for ninth on the All-time list with recent Hall of Fame inductee Jac Haudenschild.
“That was an awesome race,” said Saldana in Victory Lane. “To be able to race Donny Schatz like that was great. I don't know what to say. I think he had a better car than me, but I just didn't want to give up.”
The race began with Saldana leading from the pole with Terry McCarl in second. Saldana began to pull away early in the race as McCarl has his hands full with Schatz.
The first caution of the night flew on the eighth lap, by which time Schatz was up to second and put him right on Saldana for the restart. He looked low in turns one and two and again in three and four in a bid for the top spot. On the 11th lap, Schatz looked under Saldana in turns three and four and the pair ran side-by-side with Saldana retaining the top spot. On the very next lap Schatz went low again in turns one and two and took the lead from Saldana. As the pair worked their way through heavy lapped traffic, Saldana moved to the extreme high side of the track as he kept pace with Schatz. On the 14th lap nearly took the lead in turns one and two when Schatz was held up by a lapped car.
This battle continued for a number of laps in heavy traffic, with Schatz continuing to hold on to the lead. A caution would fly on the 24th lap giving the leaders clean track to work with. Schatz led on the restart with Saldana again going way up the track in turns one and two and getting a strong run down the back straightway. With seven laps to go, the lead pair was in heavy traffic and Saldana had closed right back up on Schatz again.
Saldana used the low side of the track in turns three and on the 32nd lap to take the lead back from Schatz, with the latter pulling back even in turns one and two. Saldana would lead down the backstretch and took the white flag as the leader with Schatz right on him when the final caution of the night flew, setting up a two-lap shootout by way of World of Outlaws rules that a race must end under two consecutive green flag laps. A strong restart helped propel Saldana, who led 15 laps on the night to the victory.
“I was just hanging with him and as soon as we got to lapped traffic he started moving and that helped me out,” noted the native of Brownsburg IN. “I ran the top in (turns) one and two the whole race and it kind of cleaned off and started taking a little rubber off of two. He passed me early on the bottom and he never knew that was there. Luckily we got him back.”
Saldana won the Crane Cams Dash to earn the pole position for the 35-lap A-Feature, though he had some smoke coming from his car during the dash and immediately took it back to the pit area to have his crew tend to it. After making some repairs, they had the machine ready to go well in advance of the main event.
“We had an oil leak and they had to work on the valve cover and some stuff,” shared the winner. “There is nothing wrong with our Mopar. The engine ran great, it was just something that came loose. That's the way it goes.”
Saldana is in the midst of his fourth season driving for Kasey Kahne Racing with Mike Curb and has won 36 World of Outlaws A-Feature events since joining the team owned by the NASCAR star, who was in attendance for the win on Wednesday night.
“It's exciting for this whole team,” said Kahne. “They have done a great job all season. To see a race like that with Joey and Donny like that was unreal. That was awesome to be here and be a fan and get to watch it. I am glad all you fans were able to see an awesome sprint car race tonight.”
While it was another big night for Saldana, it was equally bad for teammate Craig Dollansky, who finished 24th in the 24-car field. Dollansky had qualified 20th of the 35 cars that timed in, then finished third in his heat race. (7/9/2009)(WoO PR)
Joey Saldana toasts a victory with Kasey Kahne.
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