Jamaica, VA — Moving on up: Saldana Breaks into Top-10 on All-time Win List after Paul Sawyer Memorial Victory
Jamaica, VA— May 23, 2009—Joey Saldana joined an elite group of drivers on Saturday night, after winning the Paul Sawyer Memorial at Virginia Motor Speedway to break into the Top-10 on the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series all-time win list. The $10,000 victory was the 46th of his career and places him in a tie with former series champion Bobby Davis Jr. for 10th all time.Saldana started on the pole and dominated the event from start to finish, lapping all the way up to the 13th-place finisher in an event that went non-stop green to checker, after an opening lap red flag led to a compete restart.
“This was a complete team effort again tonight,” said Saldana in Victory Lane. “My crew just kept plugging away. This is a very special win as well being my 46th. I looked up to Bobby Davis and I actually got to work on his car a few times and that was pretty cool. Hopefully we can get the next guy and get up there with guys like Doug Wolfgang and Donny Schatz.”
Saldana’s team worked feverously to change an engine after time trials in preparation for the third heat race, in which he would finish second to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash. He won the dash to earn the pole for the 30-lap main event with Sam Hafertepe Jr. starting next to him on the front row at the state-of-the-art half-mile.
“We were pretty good on the top or the bottom,” Saldana stated. “These cars with the new wings, you have to chase your car all night. You can’t give up on what you have. We qualified 12th and put ourselves in the right position and came out with a win. We did the same thing last night (at Charlotte). My team doesn’t give up.”
Saldana leads the World of Outlaws with seven wins this season, already surpassing his win total from last year by two victories. He has won at seven different tracks ranging in size from a ¼-mile bullring to the big half-mile at Virginia Motor Speedway in the Budweiser Maxim. Saldana looks to extend his win streak to three on Monday as a busy Memorial Day weekend wraps up for the World of Outlaws at Canadaigua Speedway in New York.
“Now we have to go on to the next race and it’s hard to stay on top with these guys,” noted the second generation driver. “It seems right now like it’s easy to win, but it’s not. It’s a great team effort. I can’t thank Kasey (Kahne) and Budweiser and everyone enough for all that they do.”
Sam Hafertepe Jr. chased Saldana for the entire race and got close to him a couple of times in lapped traffic, but never was able to get a run on him to try to make a pass for the lead. The third-year driver wound up second to earn his best career World of Outlaws finish in the Fusion Energy J&J.
“I don’t know what it is about this place, but we seem to get around it pretty good,” said Hafertepe. “I tried everything I could in lapped traffic and my hat is off to Joey (Saldana). He just got through there a little bit better than I did. We just got way too tight in traffic and I feel like I let the team down a little bit. Joey (Saldana) and Craig (Dollansky) have a lot of experience, so I am happy to be up here running with them.”
The race began with Saldana and Hafertepe running side by side in turns one and two, with Jason Meyers charging on the high side to come from fourth to second by the time the field entered turns three and four and he looked to challenge Saldana on the front straightaway, before the only stoppage of the night occurred leading to a red flag, leading to a complete restart.
One the second start, Saldana led the field into turns one and quickly began to open a lead on Hafertepe and Meyers. By the third lap, the leaders were already in traffic and Saldana was able to slice his way through the slower machines, though toward the middle of the race he got tied up a couple of times behind a lapped car, allowing Hafertepe to close the gap.
“I went down in there and tried to run the bottom and slide back underneath him, but it didn’t work too well,” noted Hafertepe of the complete restart. “I decided to let him have the high line and run the high line behind him. I held Jason (Meyers) off on that second restart.”
Craig Dollansky used a late pass of Jason Meyers to finish third in the DirecTV Maxim for Kasey Kahne Racing. He lined up sixth and battled Donny Schatz for several laps before setting his sights on Lucas Wolfe and Meyers.
“As the race wore on and the track slowed down a bit we gained a lot of ground,” shared Dollansky. “We started back a bit after a bad dash draw and worked out way to sixth. We were able to pick some cars off late in the race. We still have some work to do, but we are working hard and we’ll get there.”
Meyers, who won at Virginia Motor Speedway in the World of Outlaws debut at the track last season finished fourth on Saturday night in the GLR Investments KPC. He remains fourth in the series championship standings.
“We’ve been pretty good at this place,” Meyers said. “We had another good race car tonight and had a great start the first time and had a shot at the lead and the red flag came out. It’s unfortunate that we showed our cards that early and there was not a lot of passing tonight. I had third for most of the night and probably should have come home there, but these guys did a great job.”
Lucas Wolfe finished fifth to earn his second Top-Five finish in the last four races and his third overall on the season in the Allebach Racing Maxim. The reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year began the night by turning the quickest lap in time trials.
Danny Lasoski was sixth in the Casey’s General Store Maxim, with current point leader Donny Schatz seventh aboard the Armor All J&J. Ed Lynch Jr. was eighth piloting the Howard Concrete J&J, with 20-time series champion Steve Kinser ninth in the Quaker State Maxim. Jason Sides rounded out the Top-10 in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Monday, May 25 at Canadaigua Speedway in New York.
VIRGINIA MOTOR SPEEDWAY NOTES
• FAST QUALIFIER: Lucas Wolfe paced the 31 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the semi-banked half-mile oval at 14.869 seconds at 121.057 mph. For his qualifying effort, Wolfe earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Jason Meyers (4), Kraig Kinser (3), Ed Lynch Jr. (2), and Sam Hafertepe Jr. (1).
• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Craig Folmar, Donny Schatz and Craig Dollansky won heat races. Joey Saldana won the Crane Cams Dash. Mike Erdley won the B-Main.
There has been 20 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 and Virginia Motor Speedway), Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway and Paducah International Raceway), 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).
• HALF-MILE WINNERS: Virginia Motor Speedway and Canadaigua Speedway are both semi-banked half-mile ovals. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series has raced 11 times this season on a track that size. The winners include: Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway), Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park, Lone Star Speedway and Virginia Motor Speedway), Greg Hodnett (Williams Grove Speedway), Chad Kemenah (Manzanita Speedway) and Danny Lasoski (Delaware International Speedway).
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Virginia Motor Speedway; Jamaica, VA; May 23, 2009
Qualifying
1) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 14.869
2) 14-Jason Meyers 14.969
3) 20-Kraig Kinser 15.017
4) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr. 15.021
5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15.023
6) 11-Steve Kinser 15.100
7) 81-Craig Folmar 15.101
8) 6-Danny Lasoski 15.106
9) 19-Craig Dollansky 15.143
10) 47J-Jeff Busby 15.172
11) 15-Donny Schatz 15.202
12) 9-Joey Saldana 15.271
13) 63J-Josh Weller 15.362
14) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell 15.373
15) 7S-Jason Sides 15.375
16) 63-Chad Kemenah 15.394
17) 89G-David Gravel 15.520
18) R19-Jac Haudenschild 15.523
19) 25-Daryn Pittman 15.649
20) O-Rick Lafferty 15.660
21) 11E-Mike Erdley 15.698
22) 49-Bob Howard 15.821
23) 22-Brian Ellenberger 15.969
24) 1X-Matt Linder 16.038
25) 7-Ed Aikin 16.370
26) 33-Scott Lutz 16.604
27) 71C-Jack Helget 16.632
28) 17T-Jeff Taylor 16.700
29) 39-Tom Humphries 17.099
30) 42-Eric Keck 17.230
31) 3-Scott Davis 20.357
Heat 1 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 81-Craig Folmar
2) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.
3) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
4) 63-Chad Kemenah
5) 63J-Josh Weller
6) 25-Daryn Pittman
7) 47J-Jeff Busby
8) 7-Ed Aikin
9) 49-Bob Howard
10) 17T-Jeff Taylor
Heat 2 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 15-Donny Schatz
2) 6-Danny Lasoski
3) 14-Jason Meyers
4) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell
5) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
6) 89G-David Gravel
7) O-Rick Lafferty
8) 22-Brian Ellenberger
9) 39-Tom Humphries
Heat 3 (8 Laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 19-Craig Dollansky
2) 9-Joey Saldana
3) 20-Kraig Kinser
4) 11-Steve Kinser
5) 7S-Jason Sides
6) R19-Jac Haudenschild
7) 11E-Mike Erdley
8) 1X-Matt Linder
9) 71C-Jack Helget
10) 42-Eric Keck
Crane Cams Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)
1) 9-Joey Saldana
2) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
3) 5W-Lucas Wolfe
4) 14-Jason Meyers
5) 15-Donny Schatz
6) 19-Craig Dollansky
7) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.
8) 6-Danny Lasoski
9) 20-Kraig Kinser
10) 81-Craig Folmar
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) 11E-Mike Erdley
2) O-Rick Lafferty
3) 22-Brian Ellenberger
4) 47J-Jeff Busby
5) 1X-Matt Linder
6) 49-Bob Howard
7) 71C-Jack Helget [$200]
8) 42-Eric Keck [$180]
9) 39-Tom Humphries [$175]
10) 17T-Jeff Taylor [$160]
11) 7-Ed Aikin [$150]
12) 3-Scott Davis [$150]
13) 33-Scott Lutz [$150]
A-main (30 laps) – Starting Position [#]
1) 9-Joey Saldana[1] [$10,000]
2) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[2] [$5,500]
3) 19-Craig Dollansky[6] [$3,200]
4) 14-Jason Meyers[4] [$2,800]
5) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[3] [$2,500]
6) 6-Danny Lasoski[8] [$2,300]
7) 15-Donny Schatz[5] [$2,200]
8) 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[7] [$2,100]
9) 11-Steve Kinser[11] [$2,050]
10) 7S-Jason Sides[15] [$2,000]
11) 20-Kraig Kinser[9] [$1,500]
12) R19-Jac Haudenschild[18] [$1,200]
13) 81-Craig Folmar[10] [$1,100]
14) 63J-Josh Weller[13] [$1,050]
15) 21AU-Brooke Tatnell[14] [$1,000]
16) 11E-Mike Erdley[21] [$900]
17) 47J-Jeff Busby[12] [$800]
18) 25-Daryn Pittman[19] [$800]
19) 1X-Matt Linder[23] [$800]
20) 49-Bob Howard[24] [$800]
21) 63-Chad Kemenah[16] [$800]
22) O-Rick Lafferty[20] [$800]
23) 89G-David Gravel[17] [$800]
24) 22-Brian Ellenberger[22] [$800]
Lap leaders: Joey Saldana 1-30
SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Craig Dollansky
Penske Power Position Award: Craig Dollansky
KSE Hard Charger Award: Jac Haudenschild
Top-10 on points
1. Donny Schatz 2766
2. Steve Kinser 2718
3. Joey Saldana 2716
4. Jason Meyers 2680
5. Craig Dollansky 2630
6. Jason Sides 2599
7. Danny Lasoski 2583
8. Jac Haudenschild 2537
9. Kraig Kinser 2472
10. Lucas Wolfe 2301
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), Quaker State (Official Motor Oil), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, Jake’s Custom Golf Carts, KSE Race Products, Penske Shocks, Racing Electronics, S&S Volvo; Engine Builder’s Challenge participants Don Ott Racing Engines, Kistler Engines, Shaver Specialties and Speedway Engines; and Chassis Builder’s Challenge participants J&J Auto Racing, Maxim Racing and XXX Race Company.
