Joey Saldana certainly didn’t lead the most laps on Friday night in the second preliminary feature of the 56th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California, but he led the four most important ones to score the win over Jason Sides, after tracking down the leader late in the race in lapped traffic.
Saldana dove under Sides on the 27th lap to take the spot and held off a furious charge on the last lap to earn his 17th overall win of the 2009 World of Outlaws season. It was his second win of the season at Silver Dollar Speedway and the fifth of his career at the ¼-mile bullring.
“It was a great effort for this team tonight, said Saldana. “Jason (Sides) had a great car and it was just lapped traffic. I actually had the top working there and thought we’d be ok when we got to Jason because that’s how I got around Brent (Kaeding). It seemed like everyone running the bottom threw a bunch of loose stuff up there and I couldn’t run there anymore. I had to then be patient and wait for lapped traffic. Then he started to move and once he moved that’s what won me the race.”
Sides jumped out to an early lead from the pole, with the first caution of the night flying on the second lap. He used a strong restart to quickly pull away from Brent Kaeding who was running second. Saldana started fourth in the Budweiser Maxim and took third on the opening circuit from Tommy Tarlton.
Sides encountered lapped traffic for the first time on the fifth lap and began to pull away at this point as Saldana battled Kaeding for the runner-up spot. Saldana would take the position on the 11th lap and set his sights on Sides. Saldana closed on the leader a couple of times, but Sides was able to clear the lapped cars first and extend his lead in open track. The second caution of the night flew on the 19th lap as Kaeding was all over Saldana for second. At this time, Sides had some engine trouble which would hamper him for the remainder of the 30-lapper.
“I was trying everything I could,” stated Saldana of the three restarts. “I thought the top would be all right, but there was so much crumbly stuff up there that you spun (the tires) on exit (of the corner). I could stay with him through the center, but it just wasn’t going to happen. I went back to the bottom and just rode around and tried to hang with him until we got to lapped traffic.”
After the race went back green on the 19th lap, the only red flag of the night flew for a four car accident, leading to another restart. Sides opened a couple of car length lead on the ensuing restart and with 10 laps had a sizeable lead in open track. With six laps remaining he found himself in lapped traffic, allowing Saldana to close back in. On the 25th lap Sides was held up in lapped traffic and Saldana looked high in turns one and two for the lead. On the next lap Saldana went low in turns three and four and shot under Sides to take the point. Sides battled back and came up just 0.221 short of the win.
“My car was really loose,” explained the winner. “We kept freeing it up and actually in the feature, I wish I could have stopped and tightened my car up and then I think we would have been really good. Then I could have run the top and it wouldn’t have been an issue. Tomorrow I guarantee we’ll tighten it up a lot more for 40 laps. It’s $50,000 to win, not 5 so we’ll definitely have a better car tomorrow.”
Sides ended up finishing second in the Wetherington Tractor Service, after driving the final 11 laps on just seven cylinders. He paced the field for the first 26 laps as he chased his first career win at Silver Dollar Speedway.
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