Home State Hero: Saldana Wins at Lawrenceburg
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Joey Saldana took the lead on the 20th lap from Terry McCarl in lapped traffic exiting the fourth turn and would lead the remainder of the 35-lap contest to pick up the $10,000 top prize aboard the Budweiser Maxim.
Courtesy: World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Media Relations
Lawrenceburg, IN— June 5 2009—Growing up around sprint car racing in the state of Indiana, Lawrenceburg Speedway has always been hallowed ground for Joey Saldana and a track that he had come close to winning at a couple of times with the World of Outlaws, including in his last start at the former ¼-mile configuration in 2006. The native of Brownsburg, Indiana found Victory Lane at the reconfigured high-banked and blazing fast 3/8-mile in his home state on Friday night, besting Terry McCarl to pick up his series leading eighth World of Outlaws A-Feature win of the season and the first of his career at Lawrenceburg.
Saldana took the lead on the 20th lap from McCarl in lapped traffic exiting the fourth turn and would lead the remainder of the 35-lap contest to pick up the $10,000 top prize aboard the Budweiser Maxim. It was Saldana’s 47th career World of Outlaws win which puts him in sole possession of 10th on the all-time list.
“This is huge,” said Saldana. “This is one of the tracks that I grew up at. Obviously it’s a different track now than what it was when I started. I’ve never won a race here before, so that is a great effort for myself. When you grow up racing these tracks, you want to win on them. It’s always special to win at home. My dad was here tonight and doesn’t normally come to the races, so that was huge for him to get to see me win.”
With the win, Saldana moved into the second spot in the World of Outlaws championship standings and trails three-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz by just 25 points as he chases his first career series title.
“To get our eighth win is great,” said the second generation driver. “Last year, going into Dodge City (next week’s race) was the first race that I won all season. To be able to say that I have won eight before we go to Dodge City goes to show that our team worked hard all winter. We have a long season and we have to keep it up.”
McCarl led from the pole position, with Saldana taking the second spot from Jason Sides on the opening lap. McCarl opened a slight lead during the first few laps, before the first caution flag of the night flew on the third lap for Steve Kinser, who came to a stop on the front straightaway, while running eighth. He went to the work area and came back out, but his car would not fire, thus ending his night.
McCarl led on the restart and again quickly opened a lead on Saldana. Just three laps later, the leaders were in lapped traffic, with McCarl slicing his way through the slower machines. The caution flag flew again while the leaders were in traffic, giving them a clear tack to work with.
McCarl used another strong restart to pull away from Saldana, though a couple laps later they were in traffic again and Saldana began to track the leader down. Just past the halfway point of the race, Saldana was right on McCarl. He made the pass for the lead and ultimately the win on the bottom of turn four on the 20th lap, sliding in front of McCarl.
“He was really getting antsy with it (lapped traffic) and I was running him down fast,” explained Saldana. “I was hoping he would do something and when he did, I capitalized on it,” noted the winner. “Once I got the lead, I just kind of hung with them and made sure I didn’t do anything stupid. I’d go to the bottom and make sure I could get a good clean slide back to the cushion.”
McCarl closed back in on Saldana the last few laps of the race as they continued to work their way through traffic, and was nearly side-by-side with him once, but was not able to get a run and settled for the second spot after leading the first 19 laps of the race in the Big Game Treestands Maxim.
“I should have about 10 wins right now and about two or three Outlaws wins,” said McCarl. “I am just disappointed in myself. I had a great car. Gary (Isom) and Brandon (Ickenberry) did a great job and we were really focused. We almost swept the thing. We were barely off qualifying and that is just because we went out about last.”
McCarl’s runner-up finish was fourth Top-Five of the season with the World of Outlaws. He has now led a total of 39 laps on the season as he looks for his first win of the year with the series.
“I only made one mistake, and Joey (Saldana) is awesome on these kinds of race tracks too,” he explained. “I felt like we were faster than him, but he didn’t make any mistakes at all. If he would have made one mistake, I think we could have got him back. That’s the thing about the Outlaws, these guys are so tough that you have to be right on with the car, right on with the engine and as a driver you can’t make any mistakes or they’ll pounce on you and he did.”
Donny Schatz started fifth in the main event and got around his teammate Kraig Kinser on the opening lap to move to fourth. He then chased Jason Sides for much of the rest of the race, before slipping around him on the 32nd lap to finish third in the Armor All J&J.
“I felt like we had a really good car early on and we had to wait for our tires to come in I think we learned a lot here tonight,” noted Schatz. “The race track kind of surprised us a bit there. It was fast up there and we could get off it run too. It’s all how you enter the corner and I couldn’t enter very good.”
Jason Sides, who began the night by setting fast time in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim, finished fourth to pick up his seventh Top-Five finish of the season.
“You kind of hate to run fourth after starting on the front row,” shared Sides. “The start was a little off and Joey (Saldana) got a good run on us and we ran third for the longest time. The tires started to go away and (Donny) Schatz kept showing me and I kept running harder and harder. Therefore I was backing my corner up a little bit in (turns) three and four. He ran in there underneath me that lap he got by. We’re just as good as those other guys, but they got by the lap cars first.”
Kraig Kinser earned his second straight Top-Five finishes coming home fifth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Jac Haudenschild was sixth in the Owen-Corning Fiberglass Maxim.
After getting caught up in a first lap accident in his heat race, Craig Dollansky raced his way through the B-Main and came from the 14th starting spot in the A-Feature to finish seventh in the DirecTV Maxim to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.
Danny Lasoski was eighth in the Casey’s General Store JEI, with Tim Kaeding ninth in the DTR Transport KPC. Jason Meyers rounded out the Top-10 in the GLR Investments KPC.
The World of Outlaws wrap up the weekend at Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday night with another full night of racing.
LAWRENCEBURG SPEEDWAY NIGHT #1 NOTES
• FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Sides paced the 34 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 3/8-mile oval at 11.947 seconds at 112.99 mph. For his qualifying effort, Sides earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Jason Meyers (4), Terry McCarl (3), Donny Schatz (2), and Danny Smith (1).
• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Daryn Pittman, Joey Saldana, Terry McCarl and Jac Haudenschild won heat races. Terry McCarl won the Crane Cams Dash. Craig Dollansky won the B-Main.
• FEATURE WINNERS: There has been 24 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event held in 2009. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Silver Dollar Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Lone Star Speedway, Houston Raceway Park, The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Virginia Motor Speedway and Lawrenceburg Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Eldora Speedway and Canandaigua Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway, Paducah International Raceway and I-96 Speedway), Dale Blaney (Attica Raceway Park), Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Tim Kaeding (Riverside International Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway), (Tri-State Speedway) and Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway).
• 3/8--MILE WINNERS: I Lawrenceburg Speedway is a high-banked 3/8-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced twice on a track that size in 2008. The winners include: Jason Meyers (Paducah International Raceway) and Joey Saldana (Lawrenceburg Speedway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Lawrenceburg Speedway; Lawrenceburg, IN; June 5, 2009
Qualifying
1) 7S-Jason Sides 11.947
2) 14-Jason Meyers 11.960
3) 24-Terry McCarl 11.987
4) 15-Donny Schatz 11.996
5) 4-Danny Smith 12.003
6) 11-Steve Kinser 12.020
7) 6-Danny Lasoski 12.070
8) 1X-Randy Hannagan 12.070
9) 20-Kraig Kinser 12.100
10) 83-Tim Kaeding 12.133
11) 19-Craig Dollansky 12.133
12) 63-Chad Kemenah 12.134
13) 17-Daryn Pittman 12.195
14) 9-Joey Saldana 12.203
15) 6X-Todd Kane 12.203
16) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.214
17) 7K-Rob Chaney 12.215
18) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell 12.250
19) 71-Paul May 12.257
20) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 12.263
21) 10-Sammy Swindell 12.326
22) 5-Tiffany Wyzard 12.328
23) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 12.333
24) 22-Brian Ellenberger 12.414
25) 4B-Tom Busch 12.438
26) 6R-Bill Rose 12.455
27) 65-Jordan Goldesberry 12.543
28) 7M-Geoff Dodge 12.605
29) 3C-Cale Conley 12.609
30) 55B-Joey Moughan 12.702
31) 8H-Brian Paulus 12.707
32) 4K-Kody Kinser 13.131
33) 2S-Brad Stevens 13.137
34) 4X-Eddie Slone 13.168
Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 17-Daryn Pittman
2) 20-Kraig Kinser
3) 7K-Rob Chaney
4) 7S-Jason Sides
5) 4-Danny Smith
6) 4B-Tom Busch
7) 3C-Cale Conley
8) 10-Sammy Swindell
9) 2S-Brad Stevens
Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 9-Joey Saldana
2) 11-Steve Kinser
3) 83-Tim Kaeding
4) 14-Jason Meyers
5) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell
6) 55B-Joey Moughan
7) 6R-Bill Rose
8) 4X-Eddie Slone
9) 5-Tiffany Wyzard
Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 24-Terry McCarl
2) 6-Danny Lasoski
3) 6X-Todd Kane
4) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
5) 8H-Brian Paulus
6) 71-Paul May
7) 65-Jordan Goldesberry
8) 19-Craig Dollansky
Heat 4 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) R19-Jac Haudenschild
2) 15-Donny Schatz
3) 1X-Randy Hannagan
4) 22-Brian Ellenberger
5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
6) 63-Chad Kemenah
7) 7M-Geoff Dodge
8) 4K-Kody Kinser
Crane Cams Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 24-Terry McCarl
2) 7S-Jason Sides
3) 9-Joey Saldana
4) 20-Kraig Kinser
5) 15-Donny Schatz
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild
7) 11-Steve Kinser
8) 14-Jason Meyers
9) 17-Daryn Pittman
10) 6-Danny Lasoski
B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 19-Craig Dollansky
2) 63-Chad Kemenah
3) 71-Paul May
4) 6R-Bill Rose
5) 3C-Cale Conley [$200]
6) 7M-Geoff Dodge [$180]
7) 55B-Joey Moughan [$175]
8) 5-Tiffany Wyzard [$160]
9) 10-Sammy Swindell [$150]
10) 4B-Tom Busch [$150]
11) 4X-Eddie Slone [$150]
12) 4K-Kody Kinser [$150]
13) 2S-Brad Stevens [$150]
14) 65-Jordan Goldesberry [$150]
A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 9-Joey Saldana[3] [$10,000]
2) 24-Terry McCarl[1] [$5,000]
3) 15-Donny Schatz[5] [$3,000]
4) 7S-Jason Sides[2] [$2,700]
5) 20-Kraig Kinser[4] [$2,500]
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild[6] [$2,200]
7) 19-Craig Dollansky[14] [$2,000]
8) 6-Danny Lasoski[10] [$1,800]
9) 83-Tim Kaeding[13] [$1,600]
10) 14-Jason Meyers[8] [$1,450]
11) 4-Danny Smith[11] [$1,300]
12) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell[18] [$1,200]
13) 17-Daryn Pittman[9] [$1,100]
14) 63-Chad Kemenah[15] [$1,000]
15) 1X-Randy Hannagan[12] [$950]
16) 7K-Rob Chaney[17] [$900]
17) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[20] [$850]
18) 22-Brian Ellenberger[22] [$750]
19) 71-Paul May[19] [$725]
20) 6X-Todd Kane[16] [$700]
21) 6R-Bill Rose[23] [$700]
22) 8H-Brian Paulus[24] [$700]
23) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[21] [$700]
24) 11-Steve Kinser[7] [$700]
Lap Leaders: Terry McCarl 1-19, Joey Saldana 20-35
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Jason Sides
Penske Power Position Award: Donny Schatz
KSE Hard Charger Award: Craig Dollansky
Top-5 in points
- Donny Schatz 3305
- Joey Saldana 3280
- Steve Kinser 3247
- Jason Meyers 3244
- Craig Dollansky 3162