From Susan Arnold
Edmonton, AB — (Aug. 23, 2013) — The World of Outlaws crossed the Canadian border for the final time this season and tonight marked the opening night of a two-night stand at Castrol Raceway.
Veteran driver Joey Saldana was tied for the most victories at Castrol Raceway with three (two in 2009, followed by a victory in 2010) and was looking for his fourth.
The second-generation driver made a very impressive qualifying run in the Motter Equipment Fatheadz Eyewear 71M. Coming onto the 3/8-mile oval next to last in the qualifying order, the Brownsburg Bullet rocketed to the No. 2 qualifying position in 13.292 seconds.
The second heat got underway on the third try after two failed attempts. When the green flew, Paul McMahan grabbed the lead while a duel ensued for second place between Saldana and Craig Dollansky. Saldana won the dogfight, capturing second. By lap four, the top six runners were weaving their way through slower traffic. At the halfway point, the running order remained McMahan, Saldana, and Dollansky. On the white flag lap, Dollansky made a final run at Saldana, but could not make the pass. At the checkered flag it was McMahan, Saldana and Dollansky.
Saldana earned a starting spot in the dash and after the inversion draw was assigned the No. 5 starting position.
In a pre-dash interview Saldana said, “We have the speed, and I hope we can do some good tonight with our GF1 chassis.”
Kerry Madsen led the first lap of the dash followed by Cody Darrah. Daryn Pittman and Kraig Kinser put on a great battle for third with Kinser ultimately securing the position. He then set off to reel in Darrah. Kinser was able to overtake Darrah to finish second behind winner Madsen. Darrah finished third, Pittman fourth and Saldana fifth. They way they finished the dash determined the starting positions for the A-Main.
Kerry Madsen took the lead in the opening lap of tonight’s edition of the greatest show on dirt with Darrah in second, hotly pursued by Kraig Kinser. With seven laps complete, the yellow flew for Casey Adams who got into the fence and sustained too much damage to continue. At the same time David Miller came in to change a flat tire and then rejoined the field.
Madsen brought the field back down for the restart and took the lead with Darrah and Kraig Kinser running wheel-to-wheel trying to run down the leader. The battle continued while Saldana moved up to fourth but lost ground to Brad Sweet and Sammy Swindell.
With 16 laps to go, Kraig Kinser did a wheelstand to get by Darrah, but Darrah quickly regained the second position. At the halfway mark, Dollansky stopped between turns one and two with a flat tire bringing out the yellow once again.
Back to green. Madsen continued to lead and Darrah and Kraig Kinser continued to battle it out, trading second and third place. With 23 laps complete the yellow flew for Dennis MacEachem who rolled to a stop on the frontstretch out of fuel. On the restart, there was a three-way battle for the lead between Madsen, Darrah and Kraig Kinser with Darrah taking the lead. Before a lap could be completed a spectacular multi-car accident brought out the red flag. Involved were Steve Kinser, who had an entire front axle ripped out of his car, Kraig Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Daryn Pittman, Steve Reeves, Rocky Borys, Jason Sides, Bill Rose, Kyle Evans, Travis Rilat and Kelly Miller. Pittman’s crew was working on the race track before the open red flag and did not go to the work area and was therefore penalized
Two-beer red flag while debris from the massive crash was cleaned up on the track.
The re-rack order for the single file restart was: Madsen, Darrah, Sweet, McMahan, Schatz and Saldana. Seven laps remained in the A-Main with 17 cars still under power.
Kraig Kinser made repairs and was able to rejoin the field.
When the green flew again, teammates Darrah and Sweet made contact going into turn one as Sweet tried to make a pass. Darrah rammed into the wall and sustained heavy damage while Marc Duperron was collected in the melee as well. Another yellow.
New starting order: Madsen, Sweet, McMahan, Schatz, Saldana.
Madsen maintained the lead with Sweet second and McMahan and Schatz challenging each other for third with Saldana right behind. Schatz worked his way past McMahan and then passed Sweet to take second as they came down for the white flag. The finish order was Madsen with the victory, Schatz second, Sweet third, McMahan fourth and Saldana fifth.
“We were so lucky to get around the crashing cars without suffering any real damage,” said Saldana. “I’m not quite sure how we managed to do that, but we’ll take fifth place and a race car all in one piece. The crowd got a wild show tonight.”