Despite Rain, Saldana Rolls to Two Top 10s
Team Mopar driver Joey Saldana and his Kasey Kahne Racing team had a soggy weekend, with three solid days of inclement weather washing out the "National Open" at the Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The $50,000 event, one of the most prestigious on the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series, was scheduled to run on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26–27. When rain fell on Friday, WoO and track officials opted for a one-night event on Saturday, only to have more wet stuff postpone things until Sunday evening. Alas, the third time was not the charm, and at mid-afternoon the decision was made to pull the plug. The "National Open" will not be rescheduled.
Interestingly, Saldana and his WoO peers did compete in two New York State events earlier in the week, but even those were impacted by Mother Nature: both the Sept. 21 event at Lebanon Valley Speedway and the Sept. 24 stop at Orange County Fair Speedway were "make-up" races, having been rained out earlier in the season.
At Lebanon Valley, the Outlaws ran a rare "feature-only" program, with the 25-lap A-main being a holdover from a July program interrupted by rain after qualifying and the heat races had been completed. Saldana drove his Mopar-powered Budweiser/Open Joist machine to fifth in the Lebanon Valley feature.
On Sept. 24 at the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y., Saldana opened the WoO program by setting a new track record in time trials. He then finished third in his heat race and sixth in the "dash" event before finding passing difficult in the 25-lap feature. Saldana was sixth at the drop of the green flag, and was still there when the checkers fell.
The WoO highway leads next to Minnesota, for dates at North Central Speedway in Brainerd on Oct. 3 and Princeton Speedway on Oct. 4. Saldana remains fourth in the series standings. For more info on the World of Outlaws Sprint Series, visit http://www.worldofoutlaws.com.
