It was a big week for Joey Saldana and his Kasey Kahne Racing team. After opening a brand new shop just down the road from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Charlotte area, Saldana was able to race in front of his car owner on Friday night in the Outlaw Showdown at the four-tenths mile, in an event. Saldana made the most of the opportunity, winning for Kahne at what is considered the team’s home track in front of a huge crowd.
Saldana passed three-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz in lapped traffic on the 20th lap and led the rest of the way to score his series leading sixth win of the season and the 45th of his career with the series, which moves him to just one spot out of the Top-10 on the all-time list.
“Tonight was a great night,” said Saldana. “I am so proud of this entire team. Kasey (Kahne) expects us to get results with all that he does, so this was a great one to get for him. It was a great effort by everyone involved here tonight.”
Saldana lined up second and ran side by side with Schatz in turns one and two on the opening start, with Schatz surging ahead down the back straightaway. Schatz began to pull away on the third lap when the first caution of the night flew. He led on the restart and within four laps was again in heavy lapped traffic.
Saldana was held up a bit in traffic allowing Schatz to pad his lead. Schatz then got held up by the slower machines giving Saldana another chance to close in. On the 20th lap in traffic, Saldana made the pass for the lead and ultimately the $12,000 win aboard the Budweiser Maxim going under Schatz in turn two.
“For me as a driver to be able pass Donny Schatz in lapped traffic and set him up to do it, is huge,” shared Saldana. “That is what he always does and he is the best at. Maybe I am learning from what he does to us. It was definitely a great run for us.”
For Saldana, the win bested his entire win total for the 2008 season. It was his first victory in May, after winning five times in the first 11 races of the season. He started the night by timing in seventh in time trials, though only was able to finish fifth in the third heat race. That time from the beginning of the night was good enough to get him in the Crane Cams Dash, where he would finish second to earn a front row starting spot for the 30-lap contest.
“When our car is right, our car is right and we can win races,” he noted. “When our car is not right, it seems like we have been struggling. The month of May has been tough for us. To come to this race and do what we did tonight was big. Our car was not that good in the heat (race) and even the dash. We just working and working and it paid off.”
Sides got around Schatz with two laps to go on the bottom of turn two and tried everything he could to track down Saldana. It was his second consecutive Top-Five finish at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the best finish of his career at the track in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim.
“I am really getting to where I like this place,” said Sides. “Our SKR cars are really going pretty good here and we are figuring out what to do with the car. It seemed like we were running Joey (Saldana) back down. I felt like if we could have had a few more laps, we could have been better.”
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