Saldana Unstoppable With Lucas Oil ASCS At Cocopah Speedway

Joey Saldana Unstoppable With Lucas Oil ASCS At Cocopah Speedway

Story By: Bryan Hulbert/ASCS

Photo By: Ron Gilson/ASCS

SOMERTON, Ariz. (November 10, 2017) Getting the call to race 48-hours before the start of the Lucas Oil ASCS Cocopah Nationals, Indiana’s Joey Saldana answered the call with victory in the team’s second night of competition with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series National Tour presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network at the Cocopah Speedway.
“I was not supposed to be here driving this. Tayler [Malsam] was supposed to be here,” said Saldana when asked about the team’s formation and quick trip to Victory Lane.
“He’s had some concussion protocol stuff, and he felt that he wasn’t ready to drive. I was actually driving home from Charlotte when Kevin Rudeen called and said he was buying a plane ticket, Kevin wasn’t racing Yuma, if you want to come you can drive the car so really, it all happened 48-hours before this three-race deal started.”
Drawing ninth in his Heat Race to start off Friday night, Saldana ran to fourth, which set the Rudeen Racing No. 26 up sixth in the night’s second Qualifier. Advancing three more spots, the overall Passing Point total put Joey starting third in the A-Feature.
Racing past Seth Bergman on the opening lap for the race lead, Joey set a torrid pace as the leaders raced into traffic on Lap 7. Working top-shelf around the Cocopah Speedway, the entrance to the first turn brought Bergman back into play as the two swapped the lead for just a moment before Joey was able to race back to the top spot.
“It was crazy. On an open track, or if you could get the lapped car to peel off the top, you could see and make a nice corner, but if you tried going in behind another car, or someone hit it wrong it would blow a bunch of dust up and it blended in with the wall,” commented Saldana on the challenge the corner presented.
“As a driver, you don’t want to go to high but you don’t want to run to low and hit the hole, but if you missed your mark, and I mean, off a front tire. Just 8-10 inches, you were going to hit it, and guess what. I was off. I did not hit my marks, but luckily we saved it and got back to the front.”
Ripping two and three wide through traffic from there on, Joey Saldana was unchallenged in the non-stop, 25 lap A-Feature; building a 2.569 second buffer over the No. 23 of Seth Bergman at the drop of the checkered flag.
Swapping spots with Seth Bergman from Friday night, Aaron Reutzel used traffic to his advantage as the race drew to a close to grab third. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. crossed fourth with Wayne Johnson making up the top-five. Jason Solwold sixth was trailed by California’s Mitchell Faccinto with Johnny Herrera, Travis Rilat, and Lucas Wolfe making the top-ten.
With event points tallied, Seth Bergman (368) has earned the pole in Saturday’s $5,000 to win A-Feature with Aaron Reutzel (359) joining him on the front row. The remaining six drivers locked in include Travis Rilat (345), Joey Saldana (341), Sam Hafertepe, Jr. (340), Wayne Johnson (326), Jason Solwold (316), and Johnny Herrera (306).
With 35 drivers on hand, Heat Races went to Travis Rilat, Aaron Reutzel, Mitchell Faccinto, and Billy Chester. Qualifiers were topped by Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Johnny Herrera, and Seth Bergman. B-Main wins went to Sammy Swindell and Harli White.
Racing continues on Saturday, November 11, 2017 with racing getting underway at 7:30 P.M. (MST).
For continued updates on the American Sprint Car Series, from the National Tour to any of the seven regional tours that make up the over 150 races across the ASCS Nation in 2017, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com. Make sure to like the American Sprint Car Series on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LucasOilASCS, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/LucasOilASCS, and check out our Instagram @LucasOilASCS.
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
ASCS Southwest Region
Cocopah Speedway – Somerton, Ariz.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Car Count: 35
Event Count: 36
Heat Races (Top 30 in Passing Points advance to Qualifiers)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Travis Rilat, [1]; 2. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [4]; 3. 20Z-Rick Ziehl, [2]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [7]; 5. 96-Greg Hamilton, [3]; 6. 224-Sammy Swindell, [5]; 7. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [8]; 8. 90-Lance Norick, [9]; 9. 29-Darrell Sickles, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [2]; 2. 3-J.J. Hickle, [4]; 3. 77X-Alex Hill, [3]; 4. 17W-Harli White, [6]; 5. 21-Robbie Price, [1]; 6. 83T-Tanner Carrick, [7]; 7. 01-Josh Shipley, [9]; 8. 0-Ned Powers, [5]; 9. 95-Matt Covington, [8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Mitchell Faccinto, [1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, [3]; 3. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [2]; 4. 26-Joey Saldana, [9]; 5. 18S-Justin Sanders, [4]; 6. 17G-Dustin Gates, [6]; 7. 2L-Logan Forler, [5]; 8. 9R-Reece Goetz, [7]; 9. 14-Cody Sickles, [8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Billy Chester III, [1]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold, [4]; 3. 74-Colton Hardy, [2]; 4. 8-Lucas Wolfe, [3]; 5. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [6]; 6. 91-Chase Goetz, [7]; 7. 99-Skylar Gee, [5]; (DNS) 52-Blake Hahn,
Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined Passing Points advance to the A-Main)
Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [3]; 2. 8-Lucas Wolfe, [1]; 3. 20Z-Rick Ziehl, [2]; 4. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [6]; 5. 37-Mitchell Faccinto, [4]; 6. 224-Sammy Swindell, [9]; 7. 3-J.J. Hickle, [5]; 8. 2L-Logan Forler, [10]; 9. 83T-Tanner Carrick, [7]; 10. 01-Josh Shipley, [8]
Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [2]; 2. 18-Jason Solwold, [5]; 3. 26-Joey Saldana, [6]; 4. 91-Chase Goetz, [7]; 5. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [1]; 6. 21-Robbie Price, [8]; 7. 17W-Harli White, [3]; 8. 2B-Billy Chester III, [4]; 9. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [9]; 10. (DNF) 99-Skylar Gee, [10]
Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman, [4]; 2. 18S-Justin Sanders, [1]; 3. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [6]; 4. 1-Travis Rilat, [5]; 5. 74-Colton Hardy, [2]; 6. 9R-Reece Goetz, [10]; 7. (DNF) 96-Greg Hamilton, [7]; 8. (DNF) 17G-Dustin Gates, [8]; 9. (DNF) 90-Lance Norick, [9]; 10. (DNF) 77X-Alex Hill, [3]
BMRS B-Main (Top 3 advance to the A-Feature)
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 224-Sammy Swindell, [1]; 2. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [6]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn, [10]; 4. 21-Robbie Price, [2]; 5. 0-Ned Powers, [8]; 6. 90-Lance Norick, [7]; 7. 2L-Logan Forler, [4]; 8. 77X-Alex Hill, [5]; 9. 14-Cody Sickles, [9]; 10. (DNF) 9R-Reece Goetz, [3]
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White, [2]; 2. 96-Greg Hamilton, [3]; 3. 95-Matt Covington, [7]; 4. 17G-Dustin Gates, [4]; 5. 01-Josh Shipley, [6]; 6. 17-Cameron (Cam) Smith, [1]; 7. 83T-Tanner Carrick, [5]; 8. 29-Darrell Sickles, [8]; (DNS) 99-Skylar Gee,
Protect the Harvest A-Feature:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 26-Joey Saldana, [3]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman, [1]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel, [6]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, [5]; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson, [4]; 6. 18-Jason Solwold, [2]; 7. 37-Mitchell Faccinto, [9]; 8. 45X-Johnny Herrera, [7]; 9. 1-Travis Rilat, [8]; 10. 8-Lucas Wolfe, [11]; 11. 17W-Harli White, [18]; 12. 91-Chase Goetz, [12]; 13. 224-Sammy Swindell, [17]; 14. 95-Matt Covington, [22]; 15. 18S-Justin Sanders, [13]; 16. 3-J.J. Hickle, [14]; 17. 74-Colton Hardy, [15]; 18. 52-Blake Hahn, [21]; 19. 20Z-Rick Ziehl, [10]; 20. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, [19]; 21. 96-Greg Hamilton, [20]; 22. 2B-Billy Chester III, [16]; 23. 90-Lance Norick, [23]
Lap Leader(s): Joey Saldana 1-25
CP-Carrillo Hard Charger: Matt Covington +8
FSR High Point Driver: Seth Bergman
Provisional(s): Lance Norick (Regional)