Joey Saldana Victorious In Vegas

Written by Zach Davis

Thursday, 03 March 2011 11:03

Joey Saldana claimed his first win of the 2011 season Wednesday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Max Dolder Photo/HardcoreRaceFans.com Joey Saldana held off late race challenges from Jason Meyers and Donny Schatz to win his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Main Feature of the 2011 season Wednesday night in the Las Vegas National Presented by J.D. Byrider at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Saldana credited his new crew chief, Kale Kahne, for the Kasey Kahne Racing team’s first win with 2011 sponsor Red Bull. “When you are competing out here with the likes of Scott Gerkin [Steve Kinser’s crew chief] and Ricky Warner [Donny Schatz’s crew chief], it says a lot when someone can come out here and set a car up that wins,” said an excited Saldana. “We had a great run with Willie Kahne as crew chief but I’m really looking forward to what Kale and I can do together as we get into this season.” Rookie Cody Darrah, who started third, charged past polesitter Terry McCarl at the drop of the green with Saldana coming from fourth to take command on lap two of the 30-lap contest. Outside polesitter Donny Schatz maintained second until Meyers joined the battle at the front and passed the four-time World of Outlaws champion for the runnerup spot. “It’s sad to say but this our best finish so far this season,” said Meyers, the 2010 Outlaws champ. “We’ve run well all year but this was the first time we were able to put it all together and really get a good finish out of it.” Donny Schatz finished third, Cody Darrah fourth and Craig Dollansky fifth. Jason Sides took a wild end-over-end ride while racing Sammy Swindell for the sixth position that brought out the red flag with six laps remaining. Sides’ car was done for the night while Swindell was able to continue on to a 12th-place finish. A multi-car crash on the restart collected Steve Kinser with Jac Haudenschild having problems on the final restart of the night. NASCAR stars Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart were on hand for Outlaws race number six of the busy 2011 schedule with Stewart strapping in one of his 700 horsepower machines for a night of racing action. Stewart exited the A-Main on lap four after contact with teammate Steve Kinser. Kahne watched from the pits as his cars finished first, fourth and eighth. The finale of the Las Vegas National Presented by J.D. Byrider is set for Thursday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Results March 2, 2011 A-main (30 laps) - Starting Position [#] 1) 9-Joey Saldana[4]                [$10,000] 2) 14-Jason Meyers[6]              [$5,000] 3) 15-Donny Schatz[2]              [$3,000] 4) 91-Cody Darrah[3]                [$2,700] 5) 7-Craig Dollansky[5]              [$2,500] 6) 24-Terry McCarl[1]                [$2,200] 7) 6-Kraig Kinser[12]                 [$2,000] 8) 83-Paul McMahan[10]           [$1,800] 9) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[9]                [$1,600] 10) 11-Steve Kinser[8]               [$1,450] 11) 21-Brian Brown[16]              [$1,300] 12) 1-Sammy Swindell[18]          [$1,200] 13) 63-Chad Kemenah[13]         [$1,100] 14) 2L-Logan Forler[24]             [$1,000] 15) 94-Zach Zimmerly[20]           [$950] 16) 6R-Bill Rose[17]                    [$900] 17) 55-Trey Starks[22]                [$850] 18) 5D-Josh Dewitt[23]                [$750] 19) 83SR-Jac Haudenschild[21]  [$725] 20) 30C-Lance Dewease[14]      [$700] 21) 83JR-Tim Kaeding[15]          [$700] 22) 2B-Ben Gregg[19]                [$700] 23) 7S-Jason Sides[7]                [$700] 24) 11S-Tony Stewart[11]          [$700]