Saldana Takes Opening Round of Boot Hill Showdown

Joey Saldana has always enjoyed racing at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas and has always been fast at the track as well. After becoming the first World of Outlaws driver to win two career A-Feature events at the track last season, he picked up his third victory at the pristine 3/8-mile on Friday night, after taking the lead from Jason Meyers on a restart on the eighth lap, pacing the field the rest of the way, with the cameras from SPEED capturing all of the action for future broadcast.

For Saldana, the $10,000 triumph was his ninth win of the season, which matches his car number. He now has 48 career World of Outlaws wins and is just three victories out of the eighth spot on the all-time win list and two short of 50 A-Feature victories.

“That was a great car tonight,” said Saldana. “I can’t say enough for my team. They did an awesome job. We were running so good up top. The longer I ran, the better I got. The lapped car were pretty tough. They didn’t realize you were running the top. It was a great run for us.”

On the seventh lap, Saldana caught Jason Meyers and ran side-by-side with him down the back straightaway. He looked high in turns three and four and then dove under Meyers as the pair charged into turns one and two on the next lap, nearly taking the lead. The caution then came out and on the restart, Saldana went to the high side in turns one and two and powered his way around Meyers. He would go on to lead the final 23 laps of the 30-lap contest aboard the Budweiser Maxim for Kasey Kahne Racing.

“I had him passed and he kind of chopped me going down into one,” Saldana noted. “I thought I had a bunch of mud in my left front and I thought that may have cost me the race. I knew once I could get him, I was pretty good, so I wasn’t very worried.”

Saldana began the night by turning the 16^th fastest lap in time trials, which put him on the pole for the fourth heat race which he won to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished sixth. He moved up to fourth on the second lap and just two laps later was in third. He took the runner-up spot from Brian Ellenberger on the fifth go-around and set his sights on Meyers. Read the complete story at WorldofOutlaws.com