BUFFALO TWP - For three years now, Joey Saldana has held the record for the fastest lap at Lernerville Speedway.

Now the Brownsburg, Ind., driver has a feature win to go with it.

Saldana led the first feature of this weekend's World of Outlaws Sprint Commonwealth Clash from wire to wire Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

The victory marked Saldana's first of the season on the Outlaws circuit and his first-ever checkered flag at Lernerville.

"This feels good," he said. "We've been struggling much of this season, but we've hung in there. Hopefully, we can build off this."

Saldana had only two top-five finishes this year entering Friday's race. He joins the other top four finishers in the feature - Steve Kinser, Brooke Tatnell and Daryn Pittman - in drawing byes straight to the fast dash for Saturday night's Outlaws card here.

Saturday's feature is 30 laps and pays $12,000 to the winner. Friday's feature was 25 laps with Saldana taking home $5,000.

Saldana held off Kinser, who is well know for successful restarts, after a caution flag came out with five laps remaining.

Kinser has 519 career Outlaw feature wins while leading in points and feature wins (six) again this year.

"You're always aware when he's running behind you," Saldana said. "You never have a race sewn up with Steve on the track. Jason Meyers knows about that."

Meyers led a race in Oklahoma from the start earlier this season before Kinser darted past him on a restart with two laps to go.

It wasn't going to happen Friday.

"My tires were too cool and there weren't enough laps left," Kinser said. "And Joey was running really well.

"We got into the top four. That's the main thing. It takes a lot of pressure off Saturday."

Saldana set the track's fast lap record of 12.334 seconds (131.344 miles per hour) on May 15, 2002. No one came close to that mark Friday.

Meyers turned the fastest lap in qualifying at 12.913 seconds, or 125.45 miles per hour. Local driver Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo was the second-fastest at 12.932 seconds.

Both ran into hard luck during their respective heat races. Meyers had ignition problems just before the start of his heat, had to tag the field and wound up qualifying for the feature by winning the B-Main.

Lynch had a leak in a tire during his heat race and wound up finishing second in the B-Main.

"The tire was losing air throughout the (heat) race," Lynch said. "I was just trying to hold on.

"It changed the way we set up for the feature. Instead of setting up to run like a rabbit, we had to shoot for winding through lap traffic and trying to finish in the top four."

Lynch headed to the pits during the 13th lap of the feature and never returned.

The only local driver on the track at the end of the feature was Mike Shearer of Freeport. He qualified for the feature by finishing fourth in his heat race. He finished 19th in the feature.

"Everything was new on the car tonight - the frame, motor, shocks, everything," Shearer said. "We just wanted to test things out and it worked pretty good."

Shearer was competing in his first-ever Outlaws feature. He tried to qualify once before, in 1997, but crashed the car during time trials.

"That was an embarrassing night," he said. "Ever since, we've always been playing catch-up with our budget and just stayed home when the Outlaws came in."

Tatnell had the pole for Friday's feature. It was the Australian's third pole of the season, but he's still looking for his first victory.

"We've been close, but I've been letting the team down," Tatnell said. "I'm encouraged about this track, though, because it was a little heavy and a little rough tonight. I grew up on tracks like this."

Chicora's Greg Beach won the Pure Stock Feature. It is his first win this season and his seventh career feature win.

Notes:

There were 40 Sprints and 16 Pure Stocks in the pits. … Donny Schatz started 16th in the feature, moved into fifth by the 13th lap, then flipped the car on the 14th lap. … Craig Dollansky, who began the night second in Outlaw points behind Kinser, flipped his car down the hillside off the back straightaway during the feature's first lap. He was unhurt, but did not return to the race. Dollansky had a flat tire at the start of his heat race, returned to tag the field and finished fifth to qualify for the feature. … Three Outlaws drivers in Friday's field of cars were under 21 years of age: Kraig Kinser is 20, Brandon Wimmer is 17 and Kevin Swindell is 16. … Time trials get under way at 7 p.m. Saturday, racing at 8.