Twice this season, Joey
Saldana and his Kasey Kahne Racing team have welcomed new crew members to their team, and twice they have won in the debut
race for the new crew members.
On Saturday at Eagle
Raceway in the Eagle Nationals, they welcomed Kolten Gouse and Jared Ridge to the team. Both recently
graduated high school and will take to the road full-time with the team for the remainder of the World of Outlaws season.
Saldana welcomed the pair in style on Saturday night, as they got to celebrate in Victory Lane,
as he won his seventh A-Feature event of the season.
Saldana powered his way
to the lead on the eighth lap of the Eagle Nationals, charging under Brooke Tatnell on the back straightaway, and then holding
off a furious charge from Jac Haudenschild over the last 10 laps of the race.
“It was a great night
tonight,” said Saldana, driver of the Open Joist Mopar-powered JEI. “The team worked great collectively to win this race.
We know that we have a team that is capable of winning each time we get to the track. We’ll just keep building on this. We
set up a strong foundation for this team last season and we continue to build and grow. This win is huge for Kasey Kahne Racing.”
The race began with polesitter
Brooke Tatnell jumping to the early lead over Steve Kinser and Haudenschild. It was slowed on the fourth lap when an accident
involving several cars that were running in the Top-10 got together. Daryn Pittman got the worst of it getting upside, ending
his night. Also, Steve Kinser’s night was over after the incident. The rest of the cars involved including current series
point leader Donny Schatz were able to continue after going to the work area,
Saldana lined up sixth
for the 40-lap event and gained a couple of spots on the opening lap. He moved into the third spot on the fourth lap when
the accident occurred. On the ensuing restart, the native of Brownsburg, Indiana
dove under Haudenschild coming off the fourth turn to claim the runner-up spot. He would then shadow Tatnell for three laps
before making the pass for the lead and ultimately the win.
A number of caution flags
slowed the race, and forced the cars to run a number of laps under the yellow flag. This had many of the teams worried about
fuel and also if their tires would hold up. The only thing that slightly worried Saldana was a lapped car in front of him
that lost power late in the race, bringing out a caution right in front of him exiting the fourth turn.
“I think the crew was
worried about fuels and tires, but I wasn’t,” explained the winner. “I knew we had a lot of fuel to begin the race and we
had a little bit harder of a tire on. We were fast down low and we could pass down there. We tried a few new things with shocks
tonight and they worked.”
Haudenschild thrilled
the crowd with his trademark aggressive driving style, as he tapped the wall several times as the laps wound down. He had
a very entertaining battle with 2001 World of Outlaws Champion Danny Lasoski in the middle portion of the race. Haudenschild
rode inches off the wall, while Lasoski was stuck to the bottom of the track. The pair traded the runner-up position a number
of times. Late in the race, Haudenschild also battled with Tatnell for the second spot, as he continued to hug the wall.
“The car was pretty good
tonight, and the crew did a good job,” said Haudenschild, driver of the Wright One Construction Maxim. “We got close to Joey
(Saldana) at the end and just came up a little bit short. We gave it everything we had.”
The native of Wooster,
Ohio made up ground in traffic as he chased Saldana, but each time he would close in on
the leader, the yellow flag flew, sending all the lapped machines to the rear of the field. On the restarts in open track
Saldana quickly jumped to a sizeable lead, leaving Haudenschild looking for traffic to close the gap.
“We didn’t need the yellows
at the end,” said the runner-up. “We were very good in lapped traffic and that is where we made up ground running up top.
If we would have gotten in traffic with 10 or 15 laps to go, we would have had a few more chances.”
Before the World of Outlaws
heat races took to the high-banked 1/3-mile, the track crew along with officials from SLS Promotions reworked the track, which
drew rave reviews from the drivers at the end of the night.
“The track was very racy
tonight,” said Haudenschild, while signing autographs for a throng of fans in the pit area. “It helped when they worked on
the track. We ran both the top and bottom.”
Tatnell matched his season-best
finish as he was third in the Eagle Nationals, to earn his third straight Top-three finish at the track. After winning his
first Crane Cams Dash of the season, he earned his first pole position and led his first laps of the 2007 campaign in A-Feature
competition.
“It’s a happy/sad day,”
said Tatnell, driver of the Volcano Joe’s Coffee Schnee. “It’s the best we have consistently been all year long, but it’s
disappointing to lead and not win.”
After enduring some bad
luck the last couple of weeks, the strong run lifted the team’s spirit as they continue to close in on their first win of
the season. Early in the race, he pulled away before a caution negated the lead he built up, and putting Saldana and Haudenschild
right on his tail tank.
“We found a few things
during the week and those helped us,” said the native of San Souci, NSW, Australia.
“I was searching the track for the rubber. It was good to lead laps and run up front.”
The always optimistic
driver has always enjoyed racing at Eagle, and admits that even when things aren’t going great, he can usually turn things
around at Eagle.
“It’s good bullring racing
here, like what I grew up doing,” explained the multi-time champion in Australia.
“You have to get your elbows up and manhandle the car. We’ve always had good results here, no matter what car I have been
in. It’s a good confidence boost for the team.”
Danny Lasoski finished
fourth in the Roth Motorsports Eagle to vault into the third spot in the championship point standings. The native of Dover,
Missouri lined up 12th for the 40-lap event, and steadily worked his way to the front.
He gained two spots on the opening lap, and was a benefactor of the lap-4 red flag, moving from 10th to fifth. From there,
he worked on Jason Sides for the fourth spot, and then got around Haudenschild for second, before battling Tatnell late in
the race for the third spot.
Jason Meyers lined up
16th in the Eagle Nationals, and also had a very consistent night aboard the Primerica Financial Maxim. He gained a couple
spots on the opening lap and also was a benefactor of the lap-4 incident, gaining five positions. He worked his way into fifth
on the 28th-lap. It was his 13th Top-Five finish of the season and it moved up into the fifth spot in points.
Chad Kemenah earned his
sixth Top-10 finish of the season, as he was sixth in the Hampshire Racing Engines Maxim. Kerry Madsen earned the KSE Race
Products Hard Charger Award after starting 23rd and finishing seventh in the Selma Shell Maxim. Paul McMahan was eighth in
the Bass Pro Shops Eagle. Tim Shaffer was ninth in the Casey’s General Stores Maxim.
Current World of Outlaws
championship point leader Donny Schatz finished 10th in the Snap-on Tools J&J after getting caught up in the lap 4 accident
and having to go to the work area and restart at the read of the field. It was his 27th Top-10 finish in 30 events.
The night began with
Saldana turning the quickest lap in time trials for the sixth time this season. He also added to the number of laps that he
has led on the season, crossing the 200-lap marker which is best in the series. In addition to this, he took over the lead
in money earned after picking up $10,000 for his seventh A-Feature triumph of the season.
The World of Outlaws
return to action on Thursday, June 14 at the recently reconfigured Tri-City Speedway in Illinois,
for an event that postponed by weather in April.
A-main (40 laps) - Starting Position [#]
1) 9-Joey Saldana[6]
[$10,000]
2) 35-Jac Haudenschild[4]
[$5,500]
3) 2-Brooke Tatnell[1]
[$3,200]
4) 83-Danny Lasoski[12]
[$2,800]
5) 14-Jason Meyers[16]
[$2,500]
6) 3X-Chad Kemenah[9]
[$2,300]
7) 11H-Kerry Madsen[23]
[$2,200]
8) 20-Paul McMahan[10]
[$2,100]
9) 6-Tim Shaffer[14]
[$2,050]
10) 15-Donny Schatz[8]
[$2,000]
11) 7S-Jason Sides[7]
[$1,500]
12) 1X-Randy Hannagan[11]
[$1,200]
13) 8K-Zach Chappell[22]
[$1,100]
14) 36-Jason Martin[18]
[$1,050]
15) 7-Craig Dollansky[21]
[$1,000]
16) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr.[19]
[$900]
17) 10C-Jeremy Campbell[15]
[$800]
18) D1-Justin Henderson[24]
[$800]
19) 11D-Dion Hindi[20]
[$800]
20) 5C-Chad Hillier[17]
[$800]
21) R19-Jason Solwold[5]
[$800]
22) 24-Terry McCarl[13]
[$800]
23) 11-Steve Kinser[2]
[$800]
24) 21-Daryn Pittman[3]
[$800] SCR
