One of the toughest feats to accomplish with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is to sweep an event, which consists of setting fast time, winning a heat race, winning the Crane Cams Dash and also being victorious in the A-Feature event. Last season Joey Saldana was the only driver to turn the trick with the series. He became the first driver to pick up a clean sweep this season on Friday night as he kicked off the Chevy American Revolution weekend at the famed Eldora Speedway in Ohio by having a perfect night.
He led all 30 laps of the A-Feature event to pick up the $10,000 top prize, after starting on the pole to earn his fifth A-Feature win of the season with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the 39th of his career. He has won three times this season at Eldora, including twice with the World of Outlaws to bring his career total at the legendary half-mile to 17.
“It was a good night for us,” said Saldana. “Last year we were the only car that pulled that (a sweep) off and so far this year we are the only car to do it, and that’s a tribute to my team. We’ve been so hit and miss this year that gets frustrating because you want to race guys like Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser every night. Tonight we were as fast as them, if not better.”
Saldana powered his way to a huge lead early in the race aboard the Budweiser/Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI, as Lucas Wolfe and Kraig Kinser tried to keep pace running second and third. By just the fourth lap, Saldana was already in traffic on the blazing fast half-mile. That lead was negated on the fifth lap as the first caution of the night flew when Craig Dollansky spun off turn four while battling Wolfe for the third spot.
A strong restart saw Saldana again pull away from the field. The caution would fly once more on the 22nd lap with a red flag coming out on the 24th lap, for a wicked crash involving Craig Dollansky, Jason Meyers and Tim Shaffer. Dollansky was transported to a local hospital with a right arm injury. On each of the restarts, Saldana motored his way down the front straightaway to quickly open a comfortable lead.
“We’ve been doing our homework,” he noted of the performance of his team’s engines. “Speedway (Engines) went home and did their homework and we have these motors running strong. We have Williams Grove coming up and we have struggled there with motors and we have new things there to try. We tried something here and tonight it was a great success. Hopefully we can take some of that and repeat something similar to that at the Grove. It was a good run for us tonight.”
The final restart of the race took place with just seven laps remaining, with Saldana out front and Steve Kinser, who won nearly 60 times in his career at Eldora Speedway directly behind him. A strong restart would propel Saldana over the last few laps and he wound up winning by over a second and a half.
“Steve (Kinser) is really good on restarts and at making you make a mistake and getting a slide job going into (turn) one,” explained the winner. “I just didn’t want him to get a run on me, because he is really good at that, especially here. I was just trying to keep him off his marks and thinking what I was going to do and it worked. We were good enough to pull away and that’s all that matters.”
In his last start at Eldora in the Kings Royal, Saldana was dominating the event when he had a tired explode on him, which was the second time that had happened at Eldora to him this season while leading. While the win on Friday night does not completely make up for those heartbreaks, Saldana and his team were not going to let the storied track take another win from them as they continue to chase wins to wrap up the 2008 season and gear up for 2009.
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