Joey Saldana

Saldana saves his best for last at World Finals

Saldana and Motter at Charlotte

In what is most likely his last outing in the Motter Equipment #71M Joey Saldana dominated the final night of the World Finals at Charlotte Dirt Track.
With the end of the three year relationship drawing near due to funding problems Saldana and his team show what they had promised for most of the year .Clearly the fasted during qualifying throughout the year the team has been unable to convert those opportunities into race wins .Sunday at Charlotte it came together and how !
To start Joey punched out his 17th quick time for the year backed it up by winning the dash then leading flag to flag in the 30 lap final.
Challenged early by Logan Schuchart then having to be concerned about the approaching Shane Stewart and Daryn Pittman the #71 Motter Equipment driver raced the cushion and swallowed up the laps to stamp his authority over this classy final race field. Restarts, traffic and challengers had no answer as the Brownsburg Bullet drove faultlessly to the stripe leaving fans and the team to rue those lost early season chances.

Saldana and Pittman at World Finals
credit -pennlive.com

The win was a fitting reward for a driver and Team that had given everything throughout a tough and demanding Outlaw Tour .Down many times but never out they fired back at Charlotte in the last race for the 2015 season and top it off on his wedding anniversary it all came together.
Saldana’s year looks like this, three wins, 37 top five finishers, 54 top 10 finishes and sixth in the Championship standing.
Joey Saldana
“This is awesome,” Saldana said. “We’ve really had a good car this year – just too many DNFs and too many mistakes on my part. We’ve had a great car and led a lot of laps and tonight just showed how good our team is.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Saldana said. “It’s just awesome – awesome experience today and an awesome time to be a part of the World of Outlaws. I love what I do.”

Joey Saldana wins at World Finals

A-Main – (30 Laps) – 1. 71M-Joey Saldana [1] [$12,000]; 2. 2-Shane Stewart [4] [$5,500]; 3. 9-Daryn Pittman [19] [$3,200]; 4. 51S-Stevie Smith [8] [$2,800]; 5. 1B-Dale Blaney [20] [$2,500]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart [2] [$2,300]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [6] [$2,200]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [21] [$2,100]; 9. 7-David Gravel [14] [$2,050]; 10. 24R-Rico Abreu [23] [$2,000]; 11. 19M-Brent Marks [12] [$1,500]; 12. 2L-Danny Lasoski [5] [$1,200]; 13. 29-Kerry Madsen [7] [$1,100]; 14. 11K-Kraig Kinser [10] [$1,050]; 15. 7S-Jason Sides [25] [$]; 16. 51-Paul McMahan [22] [$1,000]; 17. 4-Cody Darrah [24] [$1,000]; 18. 45-Tim Shaffer [15] [$1,000]; 19. 70-Danny Holtgraver [17] [$1,000]; 20. 1-Sammy Swindell [9] [$1,000]; 21. 67-Sheldon Haudenschild [13] [$1,000]; 22. 27-Greg Hodnett [11] [$1,000]; 23. 41-Jason Johnson [26] [$]; 24. 23S-Trey Starks [16] [$1,000]; 25. 24-Terry McCarl [18] [$1,000]; 26. 1A-Jacob Allen [27] [$]; 27. 17W-Bryan Clauson [3] [$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Joey Saldana 1-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 9-Daryn Pittman [+16]
The final glory of course was Donny Schatz in taking his 7th Outlaw Championship .Schatz’s year was simply amazing, he is simply the best.
This is Schatz’s season 31 wins, 60 top 5 and 70 top 10 finishes
Donny Schatz
“(Tony Stewart) has done a fantastic job of assembling the best people to do their job and he lets us do our thing,” Schatz said. “The guys on the race team, the Bad Boy Buggies/Chevrolet Performance team, do a phenomenal job. The way they maintain the car, the way they set the car up, just the way they attack things. It’s definitely an honor to drive that thing. There are days I can’t get my job done and they carry me. That’s what it takes, that’s what teamwork is and that’s why we’re standing up here as champions.”
“We’re going to go home after this weekend as champions and we’re going to wipe the slate clean just like we have to,” Schatz said. “These guys are going to start working hard – they’ve already started working hard for next year. So you come back out and hope you can better yourself next year. That’s going to be awfully tough but the group of guys that Tony Stewart has assembled, there wouldn’t be a better group of guys to do it with. These guys are absolutely phenomenal. I’m looking forward to getting to that first race in Florida now.”

The top 10 in standing for the year:

1 15 Donny Schatz
2 2 Shane Stewart
3 49 Brad Sweet
4 9 Daryn Pittman
5 29 Kerry Madsen – Australia
6 71M Joey Saldana
7 51 Paul McMahan
8 7s Jason Sides
9 7 David Gravel
10 1S Logan Schuchart

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