After having some bad luck on Friday night in the opener of the Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway, and losing a significant amount of points in the battle for the World of Outlaws championship, Joey Saldana looked to rebound in the finale of the two-day event at the Canadian oval. He did exactly that, getting back on track in impression fashion winning a thrilling race on Saturday night over Donny Schatz and Sam Hafertepe Jr. that saw the trio trade countless slide jobs in lapped traffic.
Saldana slid Hafertepe in turn four in lapped traffic on the 30th lap to take the lead, after nearly taking the top spot a few laps earlier. The second generation driver would lead the remainder of the distance to earn his series leading 12th A-Feature win of the season and his third in his last four starts at Castrol Raceway. The victory for Saldana was his 71st with the World of Outlaws, moving him ahead of Dave Blaney for seventh on the all-time win list.
“That was an amazing race,” said Saldana in Victory Lane. “I hope everyone here enjoyed it tonight. I had to really get my elbows up tonight. We had a great car and we had a great car last night and just got caught up in someone else’s mistake. Tonight it showed how good of a car we had. We are doing the best we can and everyone on this team is working hard. We have had no luck this year and sooner or later it’s got to turn around.”
Saldana lined up eighth and methodically worked his way to the front. He used a strong restart on the ninth-lap to move into the Top-Five. A double file restart on the 13th go-around helped him move into the third spot, where he then set his sights on Schatz. Saldana moved into second aboard the Budweiser Maxim just before the halfway point of the 35-lap contest with a perfectly executed slide job on Schatz in turns one and two. The pair would continue a torrid battle for the runner-up spot before they caught Hafertepe in lapped traffic.
“When Donny (Schatz) showed me his nose, I definitely knew that I had to get going or I was going to get beat,” admitted Saldana. “He was going to go by both of us. We were all running as hard as we could lap after lap. It was just a good race and I can’t say enough about my team.”
Saldana, the current World of Outlaws championship point leader, gained 18 points on Steve Kinser, who finished seventh on Saturday night and now has a 26-point advantage over the 20-time series champion. He also picked up 10 makers on Jason Meyers, who is finished fourth on Saturday night. Meyers remains third in the standings, and is now 38 points back. Saldana overcame a flat tire in his heat race to finish sixth to earn a spot in the dash by way of being second quick in time trials. He then had to give up the fifth starting spot in the dash and start at the tail by way of World of Outlaws rules for having to change a tire in a heat race.
“We are trying to win a championship and you can’t win championships when you are falling out of races,” deadpanned Saldana, who is a native of Brownsburg, Indiana. “We know we have a great car and are doing great things, we just get caught up in silly stuff and that’s just racing. Sooner or later it will turn around.”
