College or racing? A no-brainer for sprint car star Joey Saldana

When Joey Saldana was 16 and a high school student in Indiana, his father gave him a choice: he'd pay for four years of college or four years of racing – take your pick.

Saldana chose racing and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now 36, and a front-runner in the World of Outlaws sprint car series driving for a team owned by NASCAR star Kasey Kahne, Saldana will be at Ohsweken Speedway on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for a pair of 30-lap features paying $10,000 apiece to the winners.

Two years ago, the Outlaws towed in for a one-night show and the speedway, which normally has crowds in the 2,000-2,500 range, was almost overwhelmed when more than 8,000 people showed up.

Speedway owner Glenn Styres, a champion sprint car racer in his own right, decided right then and there to bring the Outlaws back – but for two nights, not just one.

Those two nights last July were rained out. It rained so hard that all the animals were running around in pairs. So Saldana – and, presumably, the other Outlaws stars like Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Jason Meyers, Danny Lasoski, et al – hope they actually get to race this time.

"To go all that way, to go through the trouble of clearing customs and then not get to race was very frustrating," Saldana said by phone from his home in Brownsburg, Ind., this week.

"Yes, we race a lot (about 80 races a year) so we're on the road a lot. But a night off really isn't welcome. We'd rather be home if we're not doing our job, which is to drive in and win sprint car races."

Saldana said the nature of a travelling series like the Outlaws ("definitely a strange lifestyle") means you're either at a motel or the speedway.

"We don't have road cars to go out and drive around in," he said. "So when we got rained out (at Ohsweken) the first night last year, we went back to the motel and thought, `Well, what do we do now?' It's not all about getting caught up on sleep.

"So we called a taxi and explained the situation and he took us to a really nice steakhouse. So it worked out, but it's not what we're about, which is racing."

Saldana grew up in a racing household. His father, Joe Saldana, was a sprint car star in the 1970s (he won the Knoxville Nationals in 1970) and had two starts in the Indianapolis 500. But his son didn't drive a race car himself till he was 16 and had a driver's licence.

"My dad didn't push me (into racing)," Saldana said. "I have a 5-year-old son and I won't push him either. There are too many kids who really don't want to do it. I was in my middle teens before I decided to try racing and my first race was in a go-kart. That's when I started to get interested.

"Now, my dad did okay in racing. He wasn't rich by any stretch of the imagination but he had enough money to offer me a choice. He'd pay for a college education after high school or he'd pay for four years of racing. I decided to go racing."

Saldana started right off in the snarling, sliding, mud-throwing sprint cars on dirt and has never wavered from his career path. He moved from local tracks to the All-Star Circuit of Champions and then, nine years ago, to "The Show" – the World of Outlaws.

At time of writing, Saldana – known as the "Brownsburg Bullet" – was second in the standings behind Schatz and just in front of Meyers but had the healthiest win record: 12 victories this season compared to Schatz's 10 and Meyers's four.

Besides a sprint car championship – he's never won one, despite coming close in 2007 with the Outlaws and in 1998 with the All-Stars – Saldana wants to win the Knoxville Nationals and several other "big" races.

"My biggest thrill to date was winning the King's Royal race at Eldora Speedway (Ohio) for the first time in 2002," he said. "Only a small group of drivers have ever won the `big' races and when I won that one, I felt for the first time that I really belonged, that I was good enough to be out there with the Kinsers and the Swindells and that select group."

And let's not forget Indianapolis, either.

"Oh, sure, I'd love to run Indy," he said. "Ask Tony Stewart, ask Kasey Kahne, ask any top-line driver and they'll tell you the Indy 500 is the greatest race in the world and everybody wants to win it.

"But I'm 36 and a professional sprint car driver with the World of Outlaws. I think they're looking for young guys who can bring money. That doesn't mean I wouldn't jump at the opportunity, but at this time of my life, I'm real happy to just be where I am."

Full details of the Outlaws' two-night visit can be found at ohswekenspeedway.com.

Norris McDonald wraps up weekend racing every Monday at Wheels.ca. nmcdonald@thestar.ca

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