“My dad had a bunch of commercial real estate in Brownsburg, Ind., that he invested in and I’ve been buying into his business and slowly taking over,” Saldana explained. “My dad is 78 now, and eventually I’ll take over all of it. It’s definitely paid off for me. It allowed me to retire from driving at a younger age, where I have some assets and still have some income coming in.
“Then, I also purchased an oil tank company from John Godfrey. It’s been a godsend too because I’m still involved in racing,” Saldana added. “I build oil tanks for Donny Schatz, Sheldon Haudenschild and Tyler Courtney. So the elite guys on the All Star and Outlaws tours, I’m still a little part of the program. And I get to build oil tanks for Rick Long, Paul Kistler, Ron Shaver, people I admired growing up.”
After all his years in racing, what’s one thing race fans don’t know about Joey Saldana?
“My wife (Shannon) was just asking me that. The race fans think I’m not personable because I wore my racing and my emotions on my sleeve,” Saldana responded. “I always felt like I was never good enough to be racing with the Outlaws for 18 years. I never felt like I was winning enough or achieving enough.
“I was always comparing myself to Donny Schatz, and he was on a totally different level. Donny set a pretty high bar and I did my best to compete with him. The fans may think I wasn’t a personable person, but I always felt like I needed to do a better job. I always felt I could achieve more, do more and I struggled with that.”
Turns out, Saldana did more than enough to earn a spot alongside his father in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
This story appeared in the April 5, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
