Joey Saldana
Quick Facts
Biography
Joey Saldana (born March 14, 1972), known as the "Brownsburg Bullet", is an American sprint car racing driver. He is the son of former sprint car and Indy car driver Joe Saldana.
Saldana began racing at the local Indiana tracks close to his home in the early 1990s. He then moved up to the All Stars Circuit of Champions series gaining experience and great success. He ran occasionally with the World of Outlaws winning his first race with the series in 1995 and then began touring full-time with the series in 1996. He finished third in points in 2003 and 2006 and second in 2007. He won 20 races (one of only four racers to do so in a season) in 2009 on his way to third in points for Kasey Kahne's race team. He finished fourth in points in 2010 with 13 wins driving for the same team. He was contending for the 2011 title when he broke his arm, ribs and punctured a lung at the King's Royal race in July which caused him to be out for nine weeks.
He parted ways with Kasey Kahne Racing at the end of the 2012 season and teamed up with Dan and Ruth Motter of the famed yellow Motter Motorsports Sprint Car Team from 2013 - 2015. The Motter family due to lack of sponsorship scaled back their racing schedule leaving Joey looking for a ride the following year. Joey took the checkered flag for 11 WoO races and 1 All Star race, and a series best 48 Top- Qualifier awards in his three years in the seat of the Motter Motorsports entry from 2013 - 2015.
Joey moved back to a previous seat (1996, 2001) for the 2016 season in the Roth Motorsports #83 team owned by Dennis and Teresa Roth. Even with numerous crew changes, Joey was able to pilot the famed maroon colored Roth #83 to 5 WoO wins and 62 Top 10 finishes.
For 2017 Joey has joined forces with Stenhouse Jr/Wood Racing. This team is made up of Matt Wood Racing and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. https://www.facebook.com/SJWRacing/
Joey has finished second in the Knoxville Nationals three times. Joey has won prestigious events such as the Devil's Bowl Speedway Winter and Summer Nationals, Silver Dollar Speedway's Gold Cup, Eldora Speedway's 4 Crown Sprint Nationals, and I-55 Speedway's inaugural Iron Man 55 which is the longest race on the season. His father Joe Saldana won the esteemed Knoxville Nationals race in 1970. Joey has distinguished himself as one of the greatest sprint car drivers of his generation.
During the mid-late 1990's, Saldana also raced in Australia in the World Series Sprintcars, racing for popular South Australian based former driver Bill Barrows. Racing the Barrows owned OTR (for Oval Track Racing, an Australian designed and built chassis), Joey finished second in the 1995/96 World Series Sprintcars behind multiple Australian Sprintcar Champion Brooke Tatnell.
He is married to Shannon, and has two sons: Reece & Ragan.
World of Outlaws career
Year | Points Finish | Wins | Awards & Accomplishments | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | - | 0 | * Won first World of Outlaws Preliminary Feature Event | ||||
1996 | 11th | 0 | Rookie of the Year | ||||
1997 | 18th | 0 | |||||
1999 | 19th | 0 | |||||
2000 | 6th | 3 | |||||
2001 | 7th | 1 | Winter Nationals Champion | ||||
2002 | 4th | 5 | Kings Royal Champion | Summer Nationals Champion | |||
2003 | 3rd | 2 | |||||
2004 | 6th | 3 | |||||
2005 | 13th | 0 | |||||
2006 | 3rd | 7 | Kings Royal Champion | ||||
2007 | 2nd | 13 | Brad Doty Classic Champion | Gold Cup Champion | 4 Crown Sprint Car Champion | Eagle Nationals Champion | Caterpillar Clash Champion |
2008 | 4th | 5 | 4 Crown Sprint Car Champion | ||||
2009 | 3rd | 20 | Iron Man 55 Champion | Gold Cup Champion | |||
2010 | 4th | 13 | Dirt Car Nationals Champion | ||||
2011 | 11th | 6 | |||||
2012 | 4th | 5 | |||||
2013 | 4th | 1 | |||||
2014 | 5th | 7 | 4 Crown Sprint Car Champion | ||||
2015 | 6th | 3 | |||||
2016 | 5th | 5 |
99 Total A-Main Wins: 6th All-time as of September 17, 2016
- (11 Preliminary wins) * The World of Outlaws did not count preliminary wins as A-Main wins on multi-day programs in the past.
All Star Circuit of Champions career
Has posted 71 career wins for 3rd All-time