Saldana Too Strong at Jacksonville
The Wheatley Chronicles – Volume IV, No. 15
Lonnie Wheatley, JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (May 4, 2016) – Tuesday night’s World of Outlaws appearance was almost a pure night of Joey Saldana domination over a field of 46 competitors.
Except for those few laps in the opening half of the 40-lap feature where it looked like Aaron Reutzel might steal away the win for his first career WoO triumph. And Shane Stewart and Brad Sweet refused to go away as well.
Saldana regrouped though and paced the final 23 circuits around the tight, ¼-mile clay oval to capture his third series win of the year aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83, fending off advances from Stewart and current points leader Sweet along the way.
“We actually fell back to third there at one point, I just had to regroup and get going again,” Saldana commented afterward.
After Reutzel slid past Saldana to take command as the leaders reached traffic on the tenth round, Stewart momentarily slipped by Saldana as well the next time around.
Saldana made his way back around Stewart soon after then recaptured the lead when Reutzel slapped the wall exiting turn four on the 18th round. Reutzel pounded the turn four concrete again the next time around, opening the door for Stewart to race into second.
With the top three dicing through traffic on an extended 22-lap green flag run, the red flag flew after 24 laps when Spencer Bayston got into the turn one wall and flipped. It was the World of Outlaws debut for the accomplished Midget shoe.
Three cautions fell over the remaining 16 circuits with Saldana denying all challenges to pick up the win.
“The cautions fell right for us,” Saldana commented.
In Saldana’s wake, Stewart and Sweet swapped positions a number of times with 16th-starter Donny Schatz joining in on the battle over the closing laps.
Stewart ultimately captured the runner-up position in the Larson-Marks No. 2 in his first Jacksonville start since a memorable triumph in the 2010 edition of the Shaheen at Jacksonville.
Sweet crossed the stripe in third, with another Schatz charge from deep in the field ending at fourth. Reutzel denied Daryn Pittman’s challenges over the final circuits to round out the top five.
The Vitals
Series: World of Outlaws
Track: Jacksonville Speedway (Jacksonville, IL)
Car Count: 46
Quick Time: Shark Racing team member Logan Schuchart captured his first quick time of the year by stopping the clocks at 10.805 seconds.
Heat Winners (starting position in parentheses): Sheldon Haudenschild (2), Brad Loyet (2), Brad Sweet (2), Shane Stewart (1).
Heat Moments: Front row outside was the place to be with the first three heats won from that position and then Saldana leading of eight of ten laps in heat four before getting jammed up behind a lapped car long enough to allow Stewart to slip by for the win. That actually proved fortuitous for Saldana, as the Dash invert of eight put him on the pole for the Dash. A dash win then preceded the feature win; The first heat got off to a shake start when Hunter Schuerenberg got upside down in a turn four scruffle that also included Jake Blackhurst with Kody Kinser then dumping it on the backstretch as the field slowed; Jimmy Bridgeman flipped in turn two four laps into the second heat.
C Main Winner (starting position in parentheses): Parker Price-Miller (2).
C Main Moments: While PPM was in command throughout, David Gravel outdueled Brady Bacon for the second and final transfer.
Dash Winner (starting position in parentheses): Joey Saldana (1).
Dash Moments: While Saldana dominated with Reutzel solidly in second, Stewart slipped by Pittman on the final lap for third.
“B” Main Winner (starting position in parentheses): Joe B. Miller (3).
“B” Main Moments: Joe B. Miller made a late move around Bill Rose to win a “B” Main in which the likes of Kerry Madsen, Bryan Clauson and Gravel failed to make the cut.
“A” Main Cautions: Five
2 Laps – An early caution flies when eighth-starter Sheldon Haudenschild spins in turn three.
24 Laps – A frenetic 22-lap stretch of green flag racing comes to a quick stop when the red flag flies for Spencer Bayston’s turn one flip.
27 Laps – Paul Nienhiser, Joe B. Miller and Ian Madsen get tangled up in turn one.
28 Laps – Jason Johnson spins in turn three.
36 Laps – Little Haud spins exiting four to set up the final four-lap dash to the stripe.
“A” Main Hard Charger: Schatz puts on his own show racing from 16th to capture fourth.
The Box Score…
Qualifying Fight 1 – 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart, 10.805; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 10.819; 3. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 10.866; 4. O5-Brad Loyet, 10.915; 5. 6-Bill Rose, 10.978; 6. 7-Paul McMahan, 11.019; 7. 82-Dusty Zomer, 11.187; 8. 51B-Joe B Miller, 11.245; 9. 4K-Kody Kinser, 11.274; 10. W20-Greg Wilson, 11.293; 11. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg, 11.308; 12. 1M-Jim Moughan, 11.315; 13. 7S-Jason Sides, 11.345; 14. 29-Kerry Madsen, 11.419; 15. 44-A.J. Bruns, 11.509; 16. 2H-Jimmy Hurley, 11.514; 17. 8D-Terry Babb, 11.542; 18. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman, 11.558; 19. 4-Danny Smith, 11.569; 20. 1A-Jacob Allen, 11.620; 21. 11K-Kraig Kinser, 11.643; 22. 77U-Chris Urish, 11.687; 23. 25-Jacob Blackhurst, 11.777;
Qualifying Flight 2 – 1. 9-Daryn Pittman, 10.862; 2. 2-Shane Stewart, 10.874; 3. 49-Brad Sweet, 10.909; 4. 83-Joey Saldana, 10.948; 5. 22-Bret Tripplett, 10.978; 6. 15-Donny Schatz, 11.005; 7. 41-Jason Johnson, 11.008; 8. 71-Jamie Veal, 11.086; 9. O7-Jacob Wilson, 11.248; 10. 29M-Joey Moughan, 11.316; 11. 18-Ian Madsen, 11.343; 12. 2B-Spencer Bayston, 11.393; 13. 17B-Bill Balog, 11.398; 14. 52F-Logan Faucon, 11.461; 15. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 11.474; 16. 17W-Bryan Clauson, 11.504; 17. 2X-Parker Price-Miller, 11.512; 18. 5-David Gravel, 11.568; 19. 99-Brady Bacon, 11.726; 20. 79J-Jacob Patton, 11.892; 21. 10S-Jeremy Standridge, 11.942; 22. 10-Dusty Homan, 13.537; 23. 84-Ben Wagoner, .001
Heat 1 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [2]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 3. 82-Dusty Zomer [4]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [7]; 5. 4-Danny Smith [10]; 6. 6-Bill Rose [3]; 7. 25-Jacob Blackhurst [12]; 8. 8D-Terry Babb [9]; 9. 11K-Kraig Kinser [11]; 10. 44-A.J. Bruns [8]; 11. 4K-Kody Kinser [5]; 12. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [6]
Heat 2 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. O5-Brad Loyet [2]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel [1]; 3. 7-Paul McMahan [3]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [5]; 5. 2H-Jimmy Hurley [8]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller [4]; 7. 1M-Jim Moughan [6]; 8. 29-Kerry Madsen [7]; 9. 77U-Chris Urish [11]; 10. 1A-Jacob Allen [10]; 11. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman [9]
Heat 3 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 49-Brad Sweet [2]; 2. 9-Daryn Pittman [1]; 3. 41-Jason Johnson [4]; 4. 22-Bret Tripplett [3]; 5. 9X-Paul Nienhiser [8]; 6. 18-Ian Madsen [6]; 7. 17B-Bill Balog [7]; 8. 99-Brady Bacon [10]; 9. O7-Jacob Wilson [5]; 10. 2X-Parker Price-Miller [9]; 11. 10S-Jeremy Standridge [11]; 12. 84-Ben Wagoner [12]
Heat 4 – (10 Laps – Top 5 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 2-Shane Stewart [1]; 2. 83-Joey Saldana [2]; 3. 71-Jamie Veal [4]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [3]; 5. 2B-Spencer Bayston [6]; 6. 5-David Gravel [9]; 7. 29M-Joey Moughan [5]; 8. 17W-Bryan Clauson [8]; 9. 52F-Logan Faucon [7]; 10. 79J-Jacob Patton [10]; 11. 10-Dusty Homan [11]
Dash – (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 8 starting positions of A-feature) – 1. 83-Joey Saldana [8]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel [3]; 3. 2-Shane Stewart [4]; 4. 9-Daryn Pittman [2]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet [6]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart [1]; 7. O5-Brad Loyet [7]; 8. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [5]
C-Main – (10 Laps – Top 2 finishers transfer to the B-feature) – 1. 2X-Parker Price-Miller [2] [-]; 2. 5-David Gravel [4] [-]; 3. 99-Brady Bacon [6] [$150]; 4. 8D-Terry Babb [3] [$150]; 5. 79J-Jacob Patton [8] [$150]; 6. 1A-Jacob Allen [7] [$125]; 7. 10-Dusty Homan [12] [$125]; 8. 10S-Jeremy Standridge [10] [$125]; 9. 44-A.J. Bruns [1] [$125]; 10. 2-Shane Stewart [-] [$125]; 11. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [-] [$125]; 12. O5-Brad Loyet [-] [$125]; 13. 14T-Jimmy Bridgeman [5] [$125]; 14. 11K-Kraig Kinser [9] [$125]; 15. 77U-Chris Urish [11] [$125]; 16. 25-Jacob Blackhurst [13] [$125]; 17. 84-Ben Wagoner [14] [$125]
Last Chance Showdown – (12 Laps – Top 4 finishers transfer to the A-feature) – 1. 51B-Joe B Miller [3] [-]; 2. 6-Bill Rose [1] [-]; 3. 18-Ian Madsen [6] [-]; 4. 4K-Kody Kinser [5] [-]; 5. 29M-Joey Moughan [4] [$300]; 6. 17B-Bill Balog [8] [$250]; 7. 17W-Bryan Clauson [12] [$225]; 8. 5-David Gravel [14] [$200]; 9. 29-Kerry Madsen [11] [$200]; 10. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [7] [$200]; 11. O7-Jacob Wilson [2] [$200]; 12. 2X-Parker Price-Miller [13] [$200]; 13. 52F-Logan Faucon [10] [$200]; 14. 1M-Jim Moughan [9] [$200]
A-Main – (40 Laps) – 1. 83-Joey Saldana [1] [$6,000]; 2. 2-Shane Stewart [3] [$3,500]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [5] [$2,000]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [16] [$1,800]; 5. 87-Aaron Reutzel [2] [$1,500]; 6. 9-Daryn Pittman [4] [$1,400]; 7. 7-Paul McMahan [11] [$1,350]; 8. 82-Dusty Zomer [9] [$1,300]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart [6] [$1,250]; 10. 71-Jamie Veal [12] [$1,200]; 11. 7S-Jason Sides [13] [$900]; 12. W20-Greg Wilson [15] [$800]; 13. O5-Brad Loyet [7] [$700]; 14. 18-Ian Madsen [23] [$650]; 15. 4-Danny Smith [17] [$600]; 16. 41-Jason Johnson [10] [$550]; 17. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [8] [$500]; 18. 9X-Paul Nienhiser [18] [$500]; 19. 2B-Spencer Bayston [20] [$500]; 20. 51B-Joe B Miller [21] [$500]; 21. 2H-Jimmy Hurley [19] [$500]; 22. 4K-Kody Kinser [24] [$500]; 23. 6-Bill Rose [22] [$500]; 24. 22-Bret Tripplett [14] [$500]. Lap Leaders: Joey Saldana KSE Hard Charger Award: 15-Donny Schatz [+12]
The Wheatley Chronicles brings insight and highlights from all variety of racing series throughout the nation in 2016 and beyond along with the Open Wheel Power Rankings on a regular basis. Please send any comments, questions or advertising inquiries regarding The Wheatley Chronicles at www.sprintcarmania.com to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
