Twice as Nice: Sides Wins Second Race of 2009 & Second of his Career at Eldora
ROSSBURG, OH (September 25, 2009) - Eldora Speedway will always be near and dear to Jason Sides. After all, he won his first career World of Outlaws race at the famed track in the 2004 Kings Royal, making history, as he scored his first win with the series in one of the crown jewel events of sprint car racing. On Friday night he returned to the hallowed ground that is Eldora’s Victory Lane, taking the opener of the Team Chevy Four Crown Nationals.
For Sides it was his second A-Feature win of the season and the fourth of his career with the World of Outlaws. He dove under Tim Shaffer on the front straightaway on the 26th lap to take the lead and would pace the field for the final five laps of the 30-lap event to earn the $10,000 victory.
“This feels great,” said Sides. “It’s different when you start on the pole and win, like when we started on the pole at Chico (Silver Dollar Speedway) and finished second. We started eighth here tonight and drove up through there and actually passed cars and that makes it that much more special. I can’t thank everyone involved in this team enough. My crew does a great job and thanks to Shawn Dancer from Dancer Logistics and Kimball Wetherington from WTS, my parents and everyone that helps us do this.”
Sides started eighth and was up to third by the eighth lap and then battled Joey Saldana for the runner-up spot for the next 18 laps, nearly taking the spot on several occasions. He dove under Saldana in turn one on the 26th lap to take second as the pair worked lapped traffic and quickly closed in on Tim Shaffer who was leading and took the lead that same lap.
“You have to be in position to win the, this year,” explained that native of Bartlett, Tennessee. “Nobody fell out in front of us other than (Terry) McCarl having a flat. Other cars we actually passed. It was good all night and the car was really good in open air. It felt really good all night.”
The race began with Sammy Swindell leading from the pole, with Terry McCarl taking the top spot on the second lap coming off turn two. Swindell came to a stop on the sixth lap while running second with a mechanical failure bringing out the first caution of the night.
McCarl would pace the field until the eighth lap when Shaffer dove under him in turn two for the top spot. That same lap, McCarl came to a stop with a cut tire. On the ensuing restart Shaffer jumped to a quick lead with Sides battling Saldana for second.
Shaffer led again on a restart after a lap-13 red flag with Sides nearly taking second from Saldana at this point. By the 18th lap Shaffer had a big lead as he began to encounter lapped traffic. Shaffer worked through traffic pretty well for a couple of laps and then was held up a bit, allowing Saldana and Sides to close right in on him. After taking the lead on the 26th lap, Sides endured one final caution and used a very strong restart to pull away at the end in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim.
“In traffic the car was still a little tight,” Sides shared. “When we had that restart it just drove away. It was really good. The car took off great and the motor ran great. It sure feels good to get this one, after we’ve had a couple slip away from us this year.”
Shaffer wound up leading 18 laps en route to finishing second in the Kistler Engines J&J to score his best finish of the season with the World of Outlaws and his fourth Top-Five in eight starts with the series in 2009.
“It was a great night for us,” Shaffer said. “You definitely want to win, but Jason (Sides) had a great car and he did a great job. He got through lapped traffic really good.”
Joey Saldana continued a strong streak that has now seen him finish on the podium in five consecutive events as he came home third in the Budweiser Maxim and also brought him to within 38 points of Donny Schatz in the series standings. He ran second for a large part of the race after moving up to that spot on the ninth lap. He then held off Jason Sides for a number of laps as the latter challenged him for the position.
“It was a good solid night for our entire Budweiser team,” Saldana stated. “We had about a third-place car tonight, and didn’t really have anything to race Jason (Sides) there. He was rolling really good on the bottom and actually got beside me once and was good the whole race. I knew he was coming in lapped traffic and I left the bottom open that one time and he just ate me up.”
The final caution of the night flew on the 28th lap, setting up a three lap shootout between Sides, Shaffer and Saldana. On the restart, Shaffer looked high in turns one and two for the lead and again in turns three and four, but could not get enough momentum to make a pass.
“You just try to attack on those,” said Shaffer who hails from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. “He stumbled on the start and I kind of got on top of him and then he got away. It just didn’t work out. It wasn’t meant to be.”
Saldana gained a lot of ground on Shaffer in the middle of the race when the leaders got into heavy lapped traffic. Three cautions and a red flag led to four restarts, which Saldana did not really want to see.
“We’ve been fighting the motor taking off for some reason and having heat in it for some reason,” admitted the native of Brownsburg, Indiana. “On every restart, I was getting killed. I didn’t need the restarts. I needed to keep racing and get into lapped traffic. That was the only shot I had. Those guys would get all over me on the starts. It’s just something you have to go home and look at and see what you did wrong and get a little better.”
Jason Meyers had another solid night coming home fourth in the GLR Investments KPC. He began the night by setting fast time to earn five bonus points in the World of Outlaws championship standings and was able to cut another nine points off Donny Schatz’s lead, after the latter finished sixth. The margin between the two is now just nine points with eight events remaining this season.
“We unfortunately pulled the 10 for the dash and didn’t really make up a lot of ground in the dash which we needed to do,” commented Meyers. “The track was tough tonight, but low and behold it still put on a great race, especially when we got to lapped traffic. It was really getting interesting there and we’ve seen that a lot this year. It was another good run for us. We just keep charging and keep trying to put the good numbers on the board.”
Cale Conley finished fifth in the Health Bridge Imaging Maxim to earn his best career finish with the World of Outlaws.
Schatz was sixth in the Armor All J&J, with David Gravel scoring his best World of Outlaws finish with a seventh-place effort in the DDR Motorsports J&J after turning in the fourth quickest lap in time trials. Jac Haudenschild was eighth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim, with Steve Kinser ninth aboard the Quaker State Maxim. Sam Hafertepe Jr. rounded out the Top-10 in the G.H. Plumbing Maxim.
The World of Outlaws return to action on Saturday, September 26 at Lernerville Speedway in Pennsylvania with the Commonwealth Clash.