Henry wins Ohio Sprint Speedweek title

FINDLAY — Consistency wins championships and Cap Henry demonstrated that adage perfectly during the 42nd Annual Ohio Sprint Speedweek. The Bellevue driver scored his second win of speedweek last Friday at the grand re-opening of Millstream Speedway in Findlay in front of a huge crowd to celebrate the return of racing after the track sat idle for eight years. Henry followed up with a runner-up finish on Saturday night in the Ti-22 Performance Fast on Dirt A-Main at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe to claim the 2024 Speedweek championship. Henry only finished out of the top five once in the eight contested A-mains during speedweek, a 17th-place run last Monday at Wayne County Speedway after being involved in an incident during his heat race. He scored a win at Attica Raceway Park to open speedweek on June 7. Danny Sams, from North Port, Fla., won three times during speedweek, including Saturday's finale at Atomic Speedway. "Our nose wing fell down there so we had nothing for Danny. He's been fast all week," Henry said after Saturday's race. "I'm happy with what we accomplished to pull off the Ohio Speedweek championship. It's something I always wanted to do. "I'm just super happy for Zack and Jeff and Gary and Chris and Chad… everyone involved in this deal… Erin and Dana. It means a lot to do this. I know it's not the All Star deal anymore, but it's still means something to win an Ohio Speedweek championship." Going into the ninth and final night of Ohio Sprint Speedweek, Henry, was one of only two drivers – the other being Greg Wilson – to have made all seven contested speedweek A-mains. After Henry's win at Attica, he scored a third place finish at Waynesfield Motorsports Park last Sunday before the heat race incident a night later at Wayne County. Henry, who drives for Sandusky-based Jeff Ward Motorsports, roared back Tuesday with a third place run at Hilltop Speedway followed by a fifth place finish at Sharon Speedway on Wednesday and a second place showing Thursday at Muskingum County Speedway. Friday at Millstream, Scotty Thiel grabbed the early lead in the 30-lap feature with Henry driving from fourth to second on the opening lap. Henry drove under Thiel for the lead on lap nine just as a caution flew for debris. Henry built up a substantial lead while the battle for second saw Zane DeVault get around Thiel on lap 12. A debris caution on lap 20 wiped out Henry's lead, but he executed a perfect restart to once again drive away. With five laps to go, Henry held a 2.1-second lead over DeVault with ninth starter Skylar Gee moving into third after a spirited battle with Thiel and Cale Thomas. A yellow flag on the final lap set up a shootout, but Henry once again nailed his restart and drove to the victory, his fourth overall win of 2024. DeVault, Gee, Thiel and 12th starter Joel Myers Jr. rounded out the top five. "It truly is a team effort," Henry said. "To win in front of that big of a crowd is so cool. I wanted to just be patient and make sure we got good points, but I always want to win, too. Years ago when the All Stars came here I was leading one and got taken out by another guy and lost it. This is the type of race track we kind of struggled at this week. I knew it was important to get out front and every one of those cautions was a big deal to keep us in clean air. It was really hard to see in traffic."