Eldora Speedway
Saldana captures Knight before the Kings Royal
Hannagan takes Jimmy Johnston Classic Win 

ROSSBURG, OH (July 13)-- By his own admission, World of Outlaws (WoO) sprint car driver Joey Saldana has had his share of struggles and bad luck since his last win in May.  Perhaps it’s fitting then that Saldana found some good luck on Friday the 13th. 

Saldana held off a hard-charging Greg Wilson to capture the Knight Before the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway. The victory was Saldana’s fourth WoO victory this season and first since May 25, a span of 15 races. Randy Hannagan didn’t wait as long for his next win. Hannagan won the National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders feature, benefitting from a pair of late cautions for his fourth win this season and third in his last five races. 

“This team’s been struggling the last two months,” Saldana said. “I think myself and the team, we’re probably ready to give up. But you do something like this and it gives you a little bit more motivation.” 

In a full-points tune-up for the $50,000-to-win Kings Royal on Saturday, Saldana started on the pole and led all 30 lap in beating Wilson to the finish line by 1.867 seconds. It was a great run for Wilson, who started 20th. Dale Blaney, Craig Dollansky and Brian Brown rounded out the top five. 

“This is a great team effort. We definitely made the right adjustments and obviously starting on the front row helps,” said Saldana, who earned a pair of Eldora wins in 2011 and has 11 A-Main feature wins at the historic speed plant. “A great accomplishment for us.” 

The driver from Brownsburg, Ind., fought off several challenges early as cautions after 10, 11 and 13 laps bunched up the field behind him with double-file restarts. But Saldana held the lead each time. He solidified his lead on lap 23 when he pulled off a slide job between a pair of lapped cars coming through turns 3-4. The two-car buffer between him and Wilson helped Saldana stretch the lead, even on an off night for Saldana. 

“The car really didn’t feel that good to me,” he said. “I felt like I was racing too easy and was going to give it away. I stepped it up there but I was afraid I was going to kill my tires. It’s over and I’m glad. We can enjoy this.” 

Connecticut’s David Gravel set fast time around the .500 mile oval in 13.340 seconds (134.902 mph). 

Blaney, Sammy Swindell, Danny Lasoski and Saldana each won heat races. Saldana won the Dash, Brian Paulus won the C-Main and Tim Shaffer won the B-Main. 

Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart flew in after NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying in Loudon, N.H., to run with the Outlaws. The defending Sprint Cup champion turned the 19th-fastest qualifying lap of 48 cars in 13.611 seconds. Stewart earlier qualified 10th for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup race. 

In the NRA feature, Hannagan took advantage of two late cautions to win the Jimmy Johnston Classic and add to his points lead. The driver from Pittsboro, Ind., who also won at Eldora on May 27, inherited the lead when Caleb Helms’ sprint car starting smoking on the final lap. His power plant finally expired on the closing lap of the main event, and that collected Kyle Sauder who slammed into the wall. 

Helms inherited the lead after 10 laps when Jared Horstman crashed coming out of turn 4.

After Helms’ accident, Hannagan won a one-lap dash by 0.733 seconds over Dustin Dagget. Butch Schroeder, Tim Allison and Ron Blair rounded out the top five. 

“I figured we were going to be a second-place race car,” said Hannagan, who instead earned his fifth career 360 win at Eldora. “I drove my butt off and the car just didn’t do what it usually does here. I gotta thank my guys. Our heads were down after the B-Main. We won.” 

Findlay’s Caleb Helms set fast time in NRA qualifying with a one-lap speed of 14.287 seconds. 

Luke Hall, Sauder and Brian Paulus had heat wins. Ryan Myers won the B-Main. 

The Kings Royal weekend concludes Saturday with another full-points show for the World of Outlaws and the NRA Sprint Invaders. Tickets for the 29th annual Kings Royal, as well as remaining races on the schedule, are available online at www.EldoraSpeedway.com or by calling the speedway office at (937) 338-3815. 

World of Outlaw Sprints

HEAT 1 - 1. 2-Dale Blaney [2]; 2. 83K-Tim Kaeding [1]; 3. 89G-David Gravel [4]; 4. W20-Greg Wilson [6]; 5. 45-Paul Mcmahan [5]; 6. 35W-Tyler Walker [7]; 7. 1X-Randy Hannagan [3]; 8. 55-Trey Starks [9]; 9. 2M-Dustin Daggett [11]; 10. 1R-Chad Blonde [10]; 11. 54-Cap Henry [8]; 12. 60-Kory Crabtree [12]; 

HEAT 2 - 1. 1-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 82-Justin Henderson [2]; 3. 4-Cody Darrah [3]; 4. 19-Stevie Smith [4]; 5. 29-Kerry Madsen [5]; 6. 15-Donny Schatz [9]; 7. 83-Tim Shaffer [6]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr [8]; 9. 24H-Bryan Sebetto [7]; 10. 8H-Brian Paulus [10]; 11. 35-Wes Mcglumphy [12]; 12. 2MH-Dallas Hewitt [11]; 

HEAT 3 - 1. 1Z-Danny Lasoski [2]; 2. 21-Brian Brown [3]; 3. 11K-Kraig Kinser [1]; 4. 11-Steve Kinser [6]; 5. 6-Bill Rose [4]; 6. 27-Daryn Pittman [7]; 7. 14-Tony Stewart [5]; 8. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [8]; 9. 1S-Logan Schuchart [9]; 10. 48H-Scott Hull [11]; 11. 15A-Adam Wilt [10]; 12. 22W-Chuck Waddell [12]; 

HEAT 4 - 1. 9-Joey Saldana [2]; 2. 7-Craig Dollansky [4]; 3. 00-Jim Nier [1]; 4. 7S-Jason Sides [6]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet [3]; 6. 59-Jac Haudenschild [5]; 7. 63-Chad Kemenah [8]; 8. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [7]; 9. 78-Todd Kane [9]; 10. 59X-Joey Magaruh [11]; 11. 56R-Ryan Myers [10]; 12. 3F-Rick Fraley [DNS]; 

C FEATURE - 1. 8H-Brian Paulus [1]; 2. 2M-Dustin Daggett [4]; 3. 15A-Adam Wilt [2]; 4. 60-Kory Crabtree [8]; 5. 59X-Joey Magaruh [7]; 6. 35-Wes Mcglumphy [9]; 7. 22W-Chuck Waddell [10]; 8. 2MH-Dallas Hewitt [5]; 9. 48H-Scott Hull [6]; 10. 56R-Ryan Myers [3]; 11. 3F-Rick Fraley [DNS]; 12. 54-Cap Henry [DNS]; 

DASH - 1. 9-Joey Saldana [1]; 2. 2-Dale Blaney [4]; 3. 1-Sammy Swindell [10]; 4. 7-Craig Dollansky [6]; 5. 82-Justin Henderson [3]; 6. 21-Brian Brown [5]; 7. 83K-Tim Kaeding [9]; 8. 1Z-Danny Lasoski [2]; 9. 19-Stevie Smith [7]; 10. 89G-David Gravel [8]; 

B FEATURE - 1. 83-Tim Shaffer [4]; 2. 14-Tony Stewart [2]; 3. 59-Jac Haudenschild [3]; 4. 35-Wes Mcglumphy [5]; 5. 55-Trey Starks [12]; 6. 24H-Bryan Sebetto [6]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz [13]; 8. 5W-Lucas Wolfe [8]; 9. 8H-Brian Paulus [17]; 10. 27-Daryn Pittman [7]; 11. 63-Chad Kemenah [11]; 12. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild [10]; 13. 2M-Dustin Daggett [18]; 14. 78-Todd Kane [15]; 15. 1X-Randy Hannagan [1]; 16. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr [9]; 17. 1S-Logan Schuchart [14]; 18. 1R-Chad Blonde [16]; 

A FEATURE - 1. 9-Joey Saldana [1]; 2. W20-Greg Wilson [20]; 3. 2-Dale Blaney [2]; 4. 7-Craig Dollansky [4]; 5. 21-Brian Brown [6]; 6. 83-Tim Shaffer [21]; 7. 82-Justin Henderson [5]; 8. 19-Stevie Smith [9]; 9. 11K-Kraig Kinser [14]; 10. 11-Steve Kinser [22]; 11. 83K-Tim Kaeding [7]; 12. 89G-David Gravel [10]; 13. 1-Sammy Swindell [3]; 14. 15-Donny Schatz [25]; 15. 7S-Jason Sides [23]; 16. 4-Cody Darrah [12]; 17. 6-Bill Rose [11]; 18. 45-Paul Mcmahan [16]; 19. 59-Jac Haudenschild [19]; 20. 14-Tony Stewart [18]; 21. 49-Brad Sweet [13]; 22. 29-Kerry Madsen [17]; 23. 35W-Tyler Walker [24]; 24. 00-Jim Nier [15]; 25. 1Z-Danny Lasoski [8]; 

NRA Sprint

HEAT 1 - 1. 34H-Luke Hall [1]; 2. 22H-Randy Hannigan [4]; 3. 11-Tim Allison [5]; 4. 11N-Ed Neumeister [2]; 5. 40-Caleb Helms [6]; 6. 5M-Max Stambaugh [3]; 7. 22D-Dennis Yoakam [7]; 8. 7C-Chad Trout [8]; 9. X-Dan Mazy [9]; 10. 10P-Jim Perricone [10 

HEAT 2 - 1. 7K-Kyle Sauder [4]; 2. 27-Beau Steward [2]; 3. B20-Butch Schroeder [6]; 4. 2MDH-Dallas Hewitt [3]; 5. 35-Ron Blair [5]; 6. 9-Ryan Myers [1]; 7. 12S-Tanner Swanson [7]; 8. 2G-Joe Giebe [9]; 9. 10C-Bob Carmen [10]; 10. 66-Jeoff Dodge [8]; 

HEAT 3 - 1. 2M-Dustin Dagget [6]; 2. 17-Jared Horstman [5]; 3. 18-Todd Heuerman [2]; 4. 28H-Hud Horton [4]; 5. 49T-Gregg Dalman [8]; 6. 7-Darren Long [3]; 7. 49-Shawn Dancer [10]; 8. 16-Ryan Ruhl [7]; 9. 4T-Josh Turner [1]; 10. W11-Chris Auckland [9]; 

B FEATURE - 1. 9-Ryan Myers [2]; 2. 5M-Max Stambaugh [1]; 3. 22D-Dennis Yoakam [3]; 4. 16-Ryan Ruhl [5]; 5. 7C-Chad Trout [6]; 6. 12S-Tanner Swanson [4]; 7. W11-Chris Auckland [10]; 8. 2G-Joe Giebe [7]; 9. 10P-Jim Perricone [9]; 10. 10C-Bob Carmen [11]; 11. 49-Shawn Dancer [12]; 12. X-Dan Mazy [8]; 13. 7-Darren Long [DNS]; 14. 4T-Josh Turner [DNS]; 15. 66-Jeoff Dodge [DNS]; 

A FEATURE - 1. 22H-Randy Hannigan [7]; 2. 2M-Dustin Dagget [4]; 3. B20-Butch Schroeder [5]; 4. 11-Tim Allison [3]; 5. 35-Ron Blair [2]; 6. 18-Todd Heuerman [13]; 7. 49T-Gregg Dalman [15]; 8. 2MDH-Dallas Hewitt [10]; 9. 27-Beau Steward [12]; 10. 16-Ryan Ruhl [19]; 11. 11N-Ed Neumeister [11]; 12. 34H-Luke Hall [14]; 13. 28H-Hud Horton [9]; 14. 22D-Dennis Yoakam [18]; 15. 40-Caleb Helms [6]; 16. 7K-Kyle Sauder [8]; 17. 7C-Chad Trout [20]; 18. 9-Ryan Myers [16]; 19. 17-Jared Horstman [1]; 20. 5M-Max Stambaugh [17]