He finished 15th during his rookie run at Indianapolis in 1978 and ended up 16th the following year. Those were Saldana’s only two appearances in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, but he made 32 additional Indy car starts between CART and USAC events.
Looking back, Saldana believes his personality limited his Indy car success.
“If I was a talker and knew how to go out and talk to people to get money, promote myself, things might have been different,” he said. “I’m a loaner. I was never able to go out and do that. In fact, it took me a long time before I could even talk to people.”
Interestingly, it was Saldana’s banker who convinced him to hang up his helmet and walk away from driving.
“That’s actually a funny story. In 1984, I was getting ready to buy 33 acres of ground north of my home,” Saldana recalled. “I went to the bank and the bank president and I are good friends and he said, ‘Joe, we’ll back you in anything you want to do, but here’s the catch: We want you to retire from racing. You’re worth more to us alive than dead.’
“It was November 1984 and I said I’d do it if they would back me. They kept their word and they have backed me on everything I’ve wanted to do. It was kind of a blessing, but at the time, I thought, ‘Man, I made a mistake,’” Saldana continued. “I went back to them and I said, ‘Can I run one more year?’ They said, ‘How many races will you run?’ I said, ‘I’ll probably run four champ dirt races for Maury Amerling and I’ll run 10 or 12 sprint car races for Galen Fox.’ They were OK with that and they didn’t put an insurance policy on me. October of ’85 at Eldora was my last race. I walked away from it and never looked back. A year-and-a-half later I went to the bank president and I thanked him. I told him I didn’t realize I had so many things on my mind other than racing. There is a time and place when everybody has to quit and that was my turning point.”
Saldana takes great pride in the fact that his son, Joey, followed him into sprint car racing.
“That’s something I’m real proud of,” he said. “To me, my son has done way more than I have. He’s won 105 races in the World of Outlaws and 74, I think, in the All Stars and I don’t know how many local races, so to me he’s done a lot more than me. I’m proud of him.”
Today, Saldana and his wife, Susie, still live in Brownsburg, Ind., where he owns and manages a business development, which includes a handful of racing-related companies.
“I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” Saldana said. “I have 26 units that I lease out. My son raced and now my grandson is racing. All of that keeps me busy.
“I’m very fortunate that I have lived this long. I’m one of the lucky ones. I had a bout with colon cancer in 2010 and I probably shouldn’t be here, but I am. So God has blessed me — and that’s how I look at every day.”