January 9, 2025 • 32 mins
Cap Henry joins Jacob to talk about the upcoming Chili Bowl, his 2024 season, the dynamics of working with Crew Chief zack Myers, and what's to come in the 2025 Ohio Sprint Car scene.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome back race fans to episode what I think is
one hundred and twenty five of the Ohio Dirt Track Podcast.
We're coming to you on a really cold January night,
but for this episode we have Cat Henry as our
guest cap. We appreciate you joining us. And how's it
going tonight? Are you staying warm?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's good. We're here. We're at home staying warm,
getting ready, you know, just packing everything up, go out
to the chili bowl.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
One do you head out for the chili bowl?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I fly up Saturday, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And then you have is it Monday night? You get
your your I guess qualifying night in.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, so practice Sunday, qualifying night Monday?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Okay, So you get too straight day's action. They're not.
There's not a lot of people that get that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, so I like running on Monday for that reason?
Is that? Uh you know, I don't run a dirt
midget well pretty much once a year at this point,
so it's pretty fresh in my memory. Uh, you know,
from the practice day and then you know, come Saturday
you have to try and remember how to do it
a week later.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
What do you I assume you probably watch you know,
Tuesday through Friday. Then what are you looking for, Like,
you know at the track, are you looking at like
what the track does or what people are doing?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
What what do you do during those off days?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A little both. For me, it's a big watching watching
what the other guys that are really good what they're doing,
and how they drive the cars. You know, Like I said,
I have such The only time I've ever run a
dirt midget's at the Chili Bowl. So it's just I
have such few starts. It's trying to trying to understand
as much as you possibly can. And for me, the
(01:56):
big thing is getting the cars entered into the corner correctly.
Coming from the wing sprint car world, I like to
drive the car so straight that typically I get myself
you know, like I either get the car too tight
on entry or like I'm pretty bad at trying to
run the bottom there when the track slows down, of
getting the car into a dead push just because like
(02:18):
I enter the corner so straight. So just watch what
the other guys are doing and try and try and
see if I can learn anything that way.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Gotcha, So we're gonna circle back around to the Chili
Bowl here in a little bit. But let's talk about
twenty twenty four a little bit. You and I have
talked about twenty twenty four quite a bit, it seems like,
so we won't spend too much time on it. But
you know, another great year. Eight wins, thirty top five,
thirty two, top tens, and you pick up the Attica
(02:47):
AFCs and Speedwak Championship. So my question to you for
twenty to twenty four is, how would you grade the
season on like the A B CD or I get
there's no E, there's no eat.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm gonna give it. I'm kind of in the D
plus to a minus area just because we started the
year off. You know, the year started off as they
looked like a D plus at best, and then you know,
we we struggled, you know, like when the Outlaws came
to town, we struggled really bad, you know, just didn't
(03:25):
just did never get it right those nights, which was
really unfortunate, you know. And then the beginning half of
the year when we ran the Mark daily two m
D like we just never unfortunately, never got that car
up to speed. Like, you know, we had the expect
expectations of of last year, but you know, overall, you know,
we did get the thirty three Cargo and you know
(03:45):
Brown Ohio Speed Week time, and then it was it
was really good the last half the year. And then
you know, went out and did the King's Royal and
the Knoxville Nationals and uh, you know, qualified really good
at those and just had you know, miscellaneous parts failures
that kind of hampered what would have been better results
of both those events. But you know, so overall, really
happy with the year.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Is it kind of difficult? You mentioned that the Mark
Daily car. Is it difficult kind of bouncing between like
the thirty three W and the two MD. I don't
know like the chassis and the engine situation on the
two MD, but if they're you know, different, is that
make it a little more difficult to adjust a little bit?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
To be honest, it I it's a weird question to
try and answer. So we did that car in twenty
twenty three and I got in it and it was
just fast from the get go. It's easy. Like that
thing was set up completely different to how we were
in the thirty three car, but both urs were fast
all the time. And then we got in that thing
(04:50):
in twenty twenty four and we couldn't make that car
fast if we tried, you know, and it wasn't. It
wasn't like he doesn't have good equipment, you know. It
was really the same equipment I had run the year
before that we were fast with, and for whatever reason,
we just couldn't we couldn't find the speed in it. Unfortunately,
we were kind of done with the car by the
(05:12):
time Zach and I had kind of figured out what
was working with the thirty three W on the new tires,
so we never really got to apply any of that
stuff to that car. But yeah, it was definitely it
was definitely pretty difficult there at the beginning of the year.
It was, you know, like we'd we'd run good with
thirty three car, go jump in the two MD and
it's like I'm fighting to try and make the show
(05:32):
and I'm like, this is just miserable.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
What was Zach with you on the two MD car?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, Zach went and did all those races with me,
So that's why it was. You know, it was kind
of a strange experience that we would, you know, we'd
run really good and then be bad, and we'd get
back on the thirty three car and run really good.
Like I said, it Marks, Mark's got really good equipment,
so it wasn't It was the same equipment that I
had run well with the year before. So we never
really truly understood what what happened there, and you know,
(06:03):
unfortunately it just didn't work out to run the car
any of the last half the year. Mark had some
personal stuff come up, you know, so it just we
just at that point it was just easier to just
run thirty three w car all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, that makes sense. But here a few weeks ago,
you picked up another win at the Rumble. Is that
your first midget win at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It was? That was yeah, it was my first first
midget win. I think they said in eleven or twelve starts,
I had I don't know, four or five second place
finishes already, and you know that my handful of starts.
But it was the first win, you know, so that
was it was fun. You know. They we had a
(06:43):
red flag I think just passed halfway and they interviewed me,
and I was pretty open about it in the interview
that I didn't think I had anything for the leaders.
I just you know, the track was very very slick
on entry, so you couldn't push the issue getting into
the corner. I was like, I just there's nothing I
can do the leader and you know, we had the
restart and kind of got lucky that his breaks had
(07:05):
gone away, you know, so kind of got lucky, got him,
you know, moved out of the groove a little bit
and drove by him and you know, managed to hold
onto it for the rest of the race. Like I said,
his brakes had faded, so he couldn't really push the
issue back. And yeah, we won that thing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Is that something that was kind of like on your
racing bucket list to win was the midgets at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, definitely had won everything else that we had tried
to you know it had ever competed in at the Rumble,
you know, so to win the whin the midget deal
was pretty cool. You know, I've gone to the Rumble
since I was a little kid, eight or nine years old,
you know, so rode up there. You know, remember the
(07:50):
years of Tony showing up in the Munchkin, you know,
under fake aliases and racing it. You know, so had led,
I had led laps at the Rumble, you know, and
we had gone you know, had the last few years
we've had a competitive race car, so it felt felt
like we got it right, that it was doable. But
to finally win it was definitely very special.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Is there anything that can like really compare to racing
you know, a midget or one of the micros there
at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
To me, it's the closest to getting back to being
like a kid racing go karts when we go down
to Columbus and race at like the State Fairgrounds and
all those little bull rings that we would race carts at.
To me, it's comparable to that, and that's what it
reminds me of. So I think that's why I enjoy it.
I've always loved indoor racing just because you know, it's
(08:40):
so you're always on little bull rings. So to me,
it's it's always fun.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And yeah, well we'll jump back into the Chili Bowl here. So, yeah,
you qualify on Monday night, and so what are some
of the goals that you have for this year's Chili Bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
First goals, make the a mane on my prelim night.
We've done that the last two years, so I'd like
to keep that going. I'd like to try and crack
into the top ten on my prelim night we uh
two years ago I did, we finished at the back,
and at that point I was just pumped just to
make the show. Last year, I felt like I had
(09:24):
a really good opportunity and was driving up into the
top ten, uh when the motor fell out of the thing.
So that kind of hampered forward progress, you know. So
I I think if we get it right, running up
into the top ten's doable for us. You know, back
in the Steve Buckwalter Carr, really good group of guys, Steve,
(09:44):
Steve does a pretty good job of getting me comfortable,
you know, So I think that's a that's a fair
you know goal for us without getting you know, you know,
we don't go there thinking with we have the expectation
that we're gonna win the thing overall or it's crazy
like that.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
How how competitive is it like, even just on a
prelim night compared to you know, you race you know,
King's Royal and Knoxville last year, So how would you
compare like the competitiveness between the Chili Bowl and some
of those bigger sprint car races.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It's it's super competitive. So I always, like I was
to explaining to somebody earlier in the week was that,
like the Chili Bowl so hard because like you, you
can't mess up at all anytime you're on the racetrack,
or it puts you so far behind you just can't
(10:36):
dig yourself out of that hole, you know, like I
was trying to tell. I was explaining to somebody, like
you know, like for example, like when we go to
the Rumble, you can qualify bad, but if your car
is good, you can race your way back in. If
you have a bad heat race or something at Chili Bowl,
like you just you're buried at that point on, like
you cannot get yourself out of that hole. There's so
(10:58):
many good cars, there's so many good racers, and it's just,
you know, it's so much luck, you know, and that's
always racing a little bit, but it's it's crucial there,
you know. So I think it's as competitive as anything
else we go do. To me, with as little midget
experience as I have, I to me, it's almost maybe
a tougher event than like the King's Royal, just simply
(11:20):
because there's more cars. You know, you go to the
King's Royal and there's sixty seventy cars. You go to
the Chili Bowl and there's three hundred cars, you know.
So I remember, like in the last handful of years,
like you know, you're like you're lining up for it
was a couple years ago. I was lighting up in
the D main and like, I'm racing with Buddy Kofoyd,
and I'm like, Buddy's really good in a dirt midget,
(11:41):
like he shouldn't be here versus I am, And you know,
so that's that's what I me. And it was one
of those kind of scenarios. But he had one bad
time he was on the racetrack and it just buried
him for the rest of the event. So it's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm gonna say, yeah, because I was looking at the
results last year and you know, you made the A
man on your pre limn night, but like you said,
you have mechanical failures and then all of a sudden
you find yourself and you know, one of the two
E mains, and that's just you don't see that really
in any other race anywhere.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that's the thing. You can. You can make
the A main on your prelim night and you're still
in the you know, the E the F main and
you made the A main. Like but you know when
there's you know, five A mains for the week, that's
just how it's gonna go, right.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So but yeah, I'm looking forward to, uh, you know,
being able to watch Chili Bowl and seeing how all
of our local guys get to do. And it's just
there's no really no other race like it. You just
get everyone from all different walks of racing and they
all converge in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, it's it's a super fun event. So I I
hadn't run it since I think two thousand and nine
was the last year that they had announced that I
had run it. And then so two years ago when
we went back they announced that it was like, you know,
they announced that I roll on the racetrack and they're like, oh,
it's been you know, thirteen years since Cap Henry's front
the Chili Bowl. I'm like, there is kids racing this
(13:10):
event that weren't born the last time I was here.
Like this is bad, and you know, but it's it's fun.
You know. You get this for me, you get to
see it's good for business for you know, my other
my main job, SCS Gearbox. I get to see customers
that we only see that time of year, you know,
and that's about the biggest time you see people run
(13:31):
in their midgets, so that's when they need stuff for them.
But it's it's fun to go out there, you know.
I think it was it was two years ago, maybe
maybe it was last year. One of the years me
and Darren Nata ended up racing each other and like
the b Maine or something, so you know, that was
kind of cool. It's such a it's a fun event.
They it's well put together, you know, the obviously the
(13:53):
you know, everybody in charge. They've been doing it long enough,
they know what's going on, so it's well run. I
feel like I feel like it's run fairly, you know,
like I don't feel like you have to have a
name to get treated well, you know, no matter who
you are, I think you get treated the same, and
to me, that's pretty important.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I will kind of jump into this past, you know,
I guess we're currently in the off season leading into
the twenty twenty five season. The big news is you
know that the All Stars have you know, re emerged
for the twenty twenty five season. Is that something that
kind of like raised your eyebrows as as a team, like,
you know, have you looked at maybe running the All
(14:31):
Stars or is it just kind of kind of you know,
pick and choose and run more of that local schedule
or somewhere in between.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
We had talked to Farmer early on, you know, when
he was told me he was, you know, trying to
bring it back, and you know, for us, it just
at this time it just doesn't make sense. Zach and
I both work full time jobs. You know, Zach's gott
a son that's now doing some go karting. I hate
to put it this way, but it paid you know,
it pays out twenty thousand. We made that last year,
(15:01):
you know, between winning the Attica and the a f CS,
So I can you know, I can race for the
same point fund and not travel eight hours, you know.
So for for us, we're gonna we'll run some of
the races when they're close. Obviously, we'll run Ohio speed Week.
I think we've got some of the other miscellaneous dates
on the schedule, but our main focus will probably just
(15:22):
be you know, do Attica, Fremont, the a f CS,
and then you know we're playing on doing Kings Royal
and Knoxville Nationals. We'll run some other stuff in there too.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And that that kind of you know, led into another
question I was going to ask. You know, when you're
putting together your schedule, how much of it do you
look at, like from the you know, the financial standpoint,
Like you said, you can run Attica Fremont af CS
and potentially take home thirty thousand if you win all
three championships, or do you you know, you want to
(15:51):
spend the extra money and travel costs and go run
for you know, maybe a little more per race, but
you know, twenty five at the end of a championship.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, for us, it definitely has to make sense financially.
You know, Jeff Ford still is still the majority funder
in that whole thing. You know, We've got a lot
of great marketing partners, but Jeff still mainly funds it
out of pocket. So it's got to make sense, you know.
And obviously Jeff still has a full time business that
he runs, you know, So it's just for us, it
(16:22):
wasn't feasible to go run the All Star deal, you know.
And there's the other hand to that. You know, Zach
and I have both done that. You know, we've we've
checked that Box. I'm not at the point anymore in
my career where like I have to go do something
like that to get my name out there. You know,
I'm happy doing what we've done the past couple of years.
(16:45):
You know. Obviously, we we want to go out, we
want to win as many races as we can. You know,
we always like challenging ourselves to try and be better.
But it wasn't worth going to chase the All Star title,
you know, financially, it just it didn't make sense to us,
right at the end of the day. That's it was
a business decision more than anything. But yeah, you know,
(17:07):
it's it's cool to see it back. You know, it's
a name that it has a deep history in sprint
car racing. You know, the All Star Circuit of Champions
was something that it definitely was a major factor in
my career, especially early on. You know. So I do
hope it succeeds and does well, and I hope they
can live up to you know what it What it
(17:28):
was to me, that's the big thing at the end
of the day is you know, I saw it in
the Guy Web era, I saw the Tony Stewart era,
and I hope it just continues to go forwards, you know,
for everybody.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Involved, right do you do you I don't know how
to word this one, but you know you have you
All Stars, you have Fast, you have a f c
S and you have you know, all your local shows
between Attica, Fremont, Wayne County, Atomic whatnot. You know, how
how do you think everyone will kind of manage this,
(18:00):
you know, this year with you know, a few extra
races added in with the All Stars that you know,
and everyone I don't know, like we're trying not to
step on you know, tracks are trying not to step
on toes of big events. But it's gonna happen eventually.
So do you think everyone's gonna be able to kind
of work together just to you know, they say the
(18:23):
rising tide raises all ships.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I sure hope. So, you know, it's it's one of
those double edged swords that you know, you know, it's
at some point stuff's gonna overlap. You just can't help,
you know. But it's one of those things that I
hope that it works out to the point that you
maybe you get more cars that come out overall because now, well, hey,
you know, now instead of going to the All Star
(18:48):
race and there's fifty five cars. Maybe you go to
an All Star race and there's thirty five to forty cars,
but now there's a fast race that now also has
twenty five to thirty cars. You know, so guys are
gonna think they have a better chance of making a
show because you know, they're not fighting the whole field overall,
they're fighting a smaller field. You know, So in a
perfect world, to me, that's you know, that's what happens
(19:10):
is that, you know, you kind of the guys from
that region kind of get split and they go, you know,
some go one way, some go the other. But you
still support the fields. You know. Obviously, I don't want
it to become a deal where you know, you're showing
up to a race. I went to some of the
guy web shows where we would show up to All
Star races and there would be you know, eight cars
at an All Star race, and it was embarrassing. You know.
(19:32):
That's that's what I don't want to see happen. I
don't think you know, farmers smart enough to not to
not go anywhere right off the rip where they don't
have cars already. But you know that's I ideally, I
think that's what should happen, is that you know that
there's there's enough cars. You know, you go through and
look at the stats for the year, there's enough cars
(19:54):
that it should be able to support the races. But
ultimately it's gonna come down to the series, to the
series and the tracks that you know, people are gonna
support the places that they they like going, that they
feel like they're appreciated at, and they're not gonna go
to the places that you know, they're not treated well.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
At m Do you do you think it's going to
entice some of the you know, maybe some of the
outsider teams, some of those you know, regional or true
outlaw teams to maybe come spend an extra weekend in Ohio.
I know, I was comparing some schedules and I've seen,
you know, there's a couple of weekends at least where
you know, there's you know, an All Star Race Friday,
(20:33):
All Star Race Saturday, and then maybe a fast race
on Sunday for example, you know, all race and for
a little extra money, do you do you think that
might entice some of those extra teams to come out
and you know, spend some time in Ohio.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's I mean, it's always possible. It's just it. You know,
I haven't looked obviously, haven't looked at all the schedules
how they overlap. You know, I think you're gonna see
more some more guys, you know, with the power ideal,
they've up there deal a lot. You see, if you
see more teams get formed, you know, teams are gonna
go look for places to race. You know, I definitely
(21:11):
think it kind of helps your odds. You know, like
Brady had announced he was gonna run his uh wing
car way more. You know, so maybe some of that stuff,
you know, Tysons, somebody like Brady, you know, somebody of
that caliber to come. You know, hey, you know I'll
spend a week in Ohio, I can race, make some money.
You know, that's always a possibility that that's what happens.
So yeah, I do. I think it's possible. Yeah, I
(21:31):
definitely do. You know, obviously, when there's more races and
more money, you know, the guys that want to make money,
they're they're gonna show up, they're gonna race, and they're
gonna try and make money.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
M hm. So going back the last few years, you
and your crew chief Zack Myers. I mean, you guys
have been one of the most potent combos that we've
seen in Ohio, and you know quite a while. Do
you guys have like a secret to success or is
it just you know, is this is what it is?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I think it's just that we have a very good
we have a really good friendship, and in turn, that's
a good working relationship. Zach is highly intelligent. That's honestly,
one of the biggest factors is that, you know, he
just he's smart. He can figure things out, He's got
(22:24):
a good understanding. There's not many nights that him and
I are in disagreeance of the direction we need to
go on the car. Actually, actually last year, at one
point when we were struggling that, there was at one
point where I tried to get more involved to see
if I could help fix it, and all I did
(22:44):
was make it worse. And finally at one point I
was like, you know what, you just go back to
making all the decisions. I'll just stick to driving it
because I'm not helping the problem at all, you know,
So it's not and you know, we've kind of our
program has been switched around, you know, like we've run.
You know, different cars, different engines, you know, So it's
not like we just had one trick thing that we
(23:05):
figured out. I think it's just a good relationship. Like
I said, Zach's really smart. He's really meticulous. Like he
just he doesn't the car doesn't leave the shop if
he doesn't think it's ready to go, so that, you know,
those little things are what make a big difference. So yeah,
(23:26):
that's and you know he's he's good at making me confident.
We work well together. We communicate well at the racetrack.
You know, can kind of you know, even through hand signals.
When he's smart enough to stand in the spot where
I can see him. I always give him a hard
time about you know, it's really easy to find him
and the other twenty three crew guys in black. But
(23:50):
you know it's I think that's all it's been. It's
just you know, it's big. We've got years together. Zach's
first year helping me was twenty nineteen, you know, so
now we're going into you know, twenty twenty, so it's
been years of you know, working together and that and
that trust and just building and building and building, and
that's what it takes, you know, you go through periods
where you don't see you see guys that are early
(24:11):
together a year or two, and it's just it's it's
tough to compete against, you know, a team that's you know,
comfortable around each other and you'll confident in each other.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Mm hm. So, like when you come off of the
track after like hot lapse or qualifying or a heat
race or something, are you telling him like what you're
feeling and then he makes adjustments off of that or
is he kind of going off of like what he
sees on the track.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I think it's a little bit of both. You know,
I'll give him, I'll give him my feedback, but you know,
a lot of times it's equally. You know, he's like, hey,
it looks like it's doing this, and I'm like, you know, yeah, yes,
yes it is. That is what it's doing, you know,
or it's and it's the biggest thing we have is
that it's always to do it as soon as I
get off the race track while it's fresh, you know,
(24:57):
don't don't let it sit. And then you're like, wow,
maybe was this or maybe it was this, but yeah,
I you know, I guess you'd have to ask Zach
to be honest, he listens to me at all, or
you know, if he just Hubert when I pull her in,
But I think he listens to me at least.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
It's it's just been a ben a roue of this
entire time. He just does what he's gonna do and
just disregards anything.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, you know what, honestly, that might be what he does.
And it's probably not a half bad idea.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you have, it's worked out well so far, if
that's exactly. I mean, do you guys feel like, you know,
given all of your success the last couple of years, like,
do you feel like you have a target on your back?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
You mean, you guys have been the guys to beat.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I don't know, I don't ever really look at it
that way. M M. You know, guys always tell us, hey,
you know, you're the car to beat when you show up,
and you know, you take it as a compliment, and
I don't. I try not to ever be big headed
about it, you know, just just grateful for his fast
as we've been and you know, I I feel like
everybody treats us, you know, races as well. You know,
(26:07):
Calee was a huge competitor this year, you know, so
is Caleb Henry, you know, and I felt like all
of us raced pretty well.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Caleb and I had a run in earlier in the
year and we talked it out, and after that, you know,
we had some really good races that were fun. You know.
So I don't I don't know, I try not to
look at it that way.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
H How cool is it, you know, being able to
be in a position where you know, guys come in
like Kale and Caleb and uh, you know, you get
to race hard with them, you know, week in and
week out.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It all it does is it makes you better. You know.
I've always said that. You know, people are like, oh,
you know, you know, you're having a harder year. Kal's
making it harder on you. Caleb's making it harder on you.
And it was like, yeah, but you know, you know,
to me, I'd rather you know, get pushed like that
and get better then just become stagnant and not try
and not try to get better, you know, So to me,
(27:01):
it made it fun. You know, there was different challenges.
You know, Kale raced the tracks differently than you know
most of the local guys did, so you know, it
was a challenge, you know, to figure out how to
race with him. Well, you know, same with Caleb. Caleb
was so strong at Fremont, you know, so learning to
you know, learning to race with Caleb, you know what
what he was good at, you know what what he
(27:22):
wasn't good at. You know that's the name of the game,
you know. So it just it pushed us to be better,
you know what I'm I'm I appreciate the challenges like that.
I think I think it's good for the sport.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
We're we're still you know, two or three months away
from you know, getting the Northwest Ohio season started. But
do you have any goals for like the twenty twenty
five season.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I don't really lay out goals, to be honest, I'd
like to do. You know. It felt like last year
we had a chance to get back into the double
digits for wins and kind of let a few get
away from us, you know, so I'd like, I guess
that would be like one of my main goals is
to you know, do the double digits for wins again.
But after that, you know, just try and try and
(28:04):
put together a successful season. You know, we've been fortunate
to win some championships the last few years. You know,
to keep that going would be really cool, but it's
it's tough. I don't feel the I don't feel the
pressure this year that I did last year. Last year
in the off season, I felt like there was a
(28:25):
lot of pressure to you know, after winning all three
to come back out and you know you had to
be you had to be that good again. This year,
I feel like, you know, after the comeback we made that,
it's definitely I've taken the pressure off myself and you know,
we can just we can just go race and go
do our thing, and you know, after that everything, you know,
(28:45):
if it's meant to happen, it'll fall in place, and
if it's not meant to happen, it won't happen.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So what you're saying is instead of like nine second
place finishes, you're hoping to turn some of those into
more wins.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You just love bringing that stand up, don't you You
You love it? Yeah, you know, if we could, you know,
if we could cut that number down a little bit
and put more of those in the win total, that
that would be pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
For the longest time back in I don't know, twenty nineteen,
or you know, twenty twenty somewhere around there. It was
always I was always interviewing Nate Dussell after he finished
second place, and I think the you know, one of
the first times he like got that you know, four
to ten win in his family car. I don't even
know if I was there, so I don't know. I
(29:31):
just always have an act for you know, getting the
second place guys, I guess, but I don't know. I mean,
seventeen starts and you have eight wins and nine second
place finishes. That's not too bad.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I guess it's fairly acceptable.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I suppose. Uh so, yeah, So one more thing before
we wrap up here, I'm bringing up I'm bringing back
the pass along question, where cap you get to ask
our next guest a question. And our next guest is
going to be the director of operations at Attica, Justin Lesky. So, gop,
(30:06):
if you know you have any burning questions for Justin,
this is your opportunity to ask him on in a
public space.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm not gonna get too hard on him. But so
the fun fact is is Justin and I actually went
to school together. He was only like a grade ahead
of me, And I'm gonna throw us both under the
bus here. We were both in choired together. So you
can ask Justin if he remembers how many times I
actually showed up to a concert or not?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What did you guys? What what part did you guys sing?
Do you remember if you face or.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Tenor or base base? Okay, I don't think I ever
truly paid attention at all. And we were in a
choir that you had to try out nonetheless. Oh man, yeah,
it's terrible. Oh yeah. So we were both in you know,
and we would always talk about race and we'd always
get yelled at. But yeah, it was it was fun.
(31:01):
Like I've known just in a long time. So he's
doing a great job at Attica. I've told him that.
But that should be a fun question, see if you remember, all.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Right, that'll be fun. Yeah, that's uh yeah, we get
I get to interview him here. I guess that's tomorrow night,
so you'll be a good one. Well I'm excited to
uh ask him that now. So yeah, cap, we we
thank you for joining us for episode one twenty five,
and uh you know, we wish the best of luck
for you at the Chili Bowl here next week and
(31:30):
in the rest of the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Awesome, thanks man, I really appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
All right, man, have a good evening and yeah, we
will see you at the racetrack in the stack back
(32:08):
back great
Welcome back race fans to episode what I think is
one hundred and twenty five of the Ohio Dirt Track Podcast.
We're coming to you on a really cold January night,
but for this episode we have Cat Henry as our
guest cap. We appreciate you joining us. And how's it
going tonight? Are you staying warm?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's good. We're here. We're at home staying warm,
getting ready, you know, just packing everything up, go out
to the chili bowl.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
One do you head out for the chili bowl?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I fly up Saturday, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
And then you have is it Monday night? You get
your your I guess qualifying night in.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, so practice Sunday, qualifying night Monday?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Okay, So you get too straight day's action. They're not.
There's not a lot of people that get that.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, so I like running on Monday for that reason?
Is that? Uh you know, I don't run a dirt
midget well pretty much once a year at this point,
so it's pretty fresh in my memory. Uh, you know,
from the practice day and then you know, come Saturday
you have to try and remember how to do it
a week later.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
What do you I assume you probably watch you know,
Tuesday through Friday. Then what are you looking for, Like,
you know at the track, are you looking at like
what the track does or what people are doing?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
What what do you do during those off days?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
A little both. For me, it's a big watching watching
what the other guys that are really good what they're doing,
and how they drive the cars. You know, Like I said,
I have such The only time I've ever run a
dirt midget's at the Chili Bowl. So it's just I
have such few starts. It's trying to trying to understand
as much as you possibly can. And for me, the
(01:56):
big thing is getting the cars entered into the corner correctly.
Coming from the wing sprint car world, I like to
drive the car so straight that typically I get myself
you know, like I either get the car too tight
on entry or like I'm pretty bad at trying to
run the bottom there when the track slows down, of
getting the car into a dead push just because like
(02:18):
I enter the corner so straight. So just watch what
the other guys are doing and try and try and
see if I can learn anything that way.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Gotcha, So we're gonna circle back around to the Chili
Bowl here in a little bit. But let's talk about
twenty twenty four a little bit. You and I have
talked about twenty twenty four quite a bit, it seems like,
so we won't spend too much time on it. But
you know, another great year. Eight wins, thirty top five,
thirty two, top tens, and you pick up the Attica
(02:47):
AFCs and Speedwak Championship. So my question to you for
twenty to twenty four is, how would you grade the
season on like the A B CD or I get
there's no E, there's no eat.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm gonna give it. I'm kind of in the D
plus to a minus area just because we started the
year off. You know, the year started off as they
looked like a D plus at best, and then you know,
we we struggled, you know, like when the Outlaws came
to town, we struggled really bad, you know, just didn't
(03:25):
just did never get it right those nights, which was
really unfortunate, you know. And then the beginning half of
the year when we ran the Mark daily two m
D like we just never unfortunately, never got that car
up to speed. Like, you know, we had the expect
expectations of of last year, but you know, overall, you know,
we did get the thirty three Cargo and you know
(03:45):
Brown Ohio Speed Week time, and then it was it
was really good the last half the year. And then
you know, went out and did the King's Royal and
the Knoxville Nationals and uh, you know, qualified really good
at those and just had you know, miscellaneous parts failures
that kind of hampered what would have been better results
of both those events. But you know, so overall, really
happy with the year.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Is it kind of difficult? You mentioned that the Mark
Daily car. Is it difficult kind of bouncing between like
the thirty three W and the two MD. I don't
know like the chassis and the engine situation on the
two MD, but if they're you know, different, is that
make it a little more difficult to adjust a little bit?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
To be honest, it I it's a weird question to
try and answer. So we did that car in twenty
twenty three and I got in it and it was
just fast from the get go. It's easy. Like that
thing was set up completely different to how we were
in the thirty three car, but both urs were fast
all the time. And then we got in that thing
(04:50):
in twenty twenty four and we couldn't make that car
fast if we tried, you know, and it wasn't. It
wasn't like he doesn't have good equipment, you know. It
was really the same equipment I had run the year
before that we were fast with, and for whatever reason,
we just couldn't we couldn't find the speed in it. Unfortunately,
we were kind of done with the car by the
(05:12):
time Zach and I had kind of figured out what
was working with the thirty three W on the new tires,
so we never really got to apply any of that
stuff to that car. But yeah, it was definitely it
was definitely pretty difficult there at the beginning of the year.
It was, you know, like we'd we'd run good with
thirty three car, go jump in the two MD and
it's like I'm fighting to try and make the show
(05:32):
and I'm like, this is just miserable.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
What was Zach with you on the two MD car?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, Zach went and did all those races with me,
So that's why it was. You know, it was kind
of a strange experience that we would, you know, we'd
run really good and then be bad, and we'd get
back on the thirty three car and run really good.
Like I said, it Marks, Mark's got really good equipment,
so it wasn't It was the same equipment that I
had run well with the year before. So we never
really truly understood what what happened there, and you know,
(06:03):
unfortunately it just didn't work out to run the car
any of the last half the year. Mark had some
personal stuff come up, you know, so it just we
just at that point it was just easier to just
run thirty three w car all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, that makes sense. But here a few weeks ago,
you picked up another win at the Rumble. Is that
your first midget win at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It was? That was yeah, it was my first first
midget win. I think they said in eleven or twelve starts,
I had I don't know, four or five second place
finishes already, and you know that my handful of starts.
But it was the first win, you know, so that
was it was fun. You know. They we had a
(06:43):
red flag I think just passed halfway and they interviewed me,
and I was pretty open about it in the interview
that I didn't think I had anything for the leaders.
I just you know, the track was very very slick
on entry, so you couldn't push the issue getting into
the corner. I was like, I just there's nothing I
can do the leader and you know, we had the
restart and kind of got lucky that his breaks had
(07:05):
gone away, you know, so kind of got lucky, got him,
you know, moved out of the groove a little bit
and drove by him and you know, managed to hold
onto it for the rest of the race. Like I said,
his brakes had faded, so he couldn't really push the
issue back. And yeah, we won that thing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Is that something that was kind of like on your
racing bucket list to win was the midgets at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, definitely had won everything else that we had tried
to you know it had ever competed in at the Rumble,
you know, so to win the whin the midget deal
was pretty cool. You know, I've gone to the Rumble
since I was a little kid, eight or nine years old,
you know, so rode up there. You know, remember the
(07:50):
years of Tony showing up in the Munchkin, you know,
under fake aliases and racing it. You know, so had led,
I had led laps at the Rumble, you know, and
we had gone you know, had the last few years
we've had a competitive race car, so it felt felt
like we got it right, that it was doable. But
to finally win it was definitely very special.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Is there anything that can like really compare to racing
you know, a midget or one of the micros there
at the Rumble?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
To me, it's the closest to getting back to being
like a kid racing go karts when we go down
to Columbus and race at like the State Fairgrounds and
all those little bull rings that we would race carts at.
To me, it's comparable to that, and that's what it
reminds me of. So I think that's why I enjoy it.
I've always loved indoor racing just because you know, it's
(08:40):
so you're always on little bull rings. So to me,
it's it's always fun.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And yeah, well we'll jump back into the Chili Bowl here. So, yeah,
you qualify on Monday night, and so what are some
of the goals that you have for this year's Chili Bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
First goals, make the a mane on my prelim night.
We've done that the last two years, so I'd like
to keep that going. I'd like to try and crack
into the top ten on my prelim night we uh
two years ago I did, we finished at the back,
and at that point I was just pumped just to
make the show. Last year, I felt like I had
(09:24):
a really good opportunity and was driving up into the
top ten, uh when the motor fell out of the thing.
So that kind of hampered forward progress, you know. So
I I think if we get it right, running up
into the top ten's doable for us. You know, back
in the Steve Buckwalter Carr, really good group of guys, Steve,
(09:44):
Steve does a pretty good job of getting me comfortable,
you know, So I think that's a that's a fair
you know goal for us without getting you know, you know,
we don't go there thinking with we have the expectation
that we're gonna win the thing overall or it's crazy
like that.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
How how competitive is it like, even just on a
prelim night compared to you know, you race you know,
King's Royal and Knoxville last year, So how would you
compare like the competitiveness between the Chili Bowl and some
of those bigger sprint car races.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It's it's super competitive. So I always, like I was
to explaining to somebody earlier in the week was that,
like the Chili Bowl so hard because like you, you
can't mess up at all anytime you're on the racetrack,
or it puts you so far behind you just can't
(10:36):
dig yourself out of that hole, you know, like I
was trying to tell. I was explaining to somebody, like
you know, like for example, like when we go to
the Rumble, you can qualify bad, but if your car
is good, you can race your way back in. If
you have a bad heat race or something at Chili Bowl,
like you just you're buried at that point on, like
you cannot get yourself out of that hole. There's so
(10:58):
many good cars, there's so many good racers, and it's just,
you know, it's so much luck, you know, and that's
always racing a little bit, but it's it's crucial there,
you know. So I think it's as competitive as anything
else we go do. To me, with as little midget
experience as I have, I to me, it's almost maybe
a tougher event than like the King's Royal, just simply
(11:20):
because there's more cars. You know, you go to the
King's Royal and there's sixty seventy cars. You go to
the Chili Bowl and there's three hundred cars, you know.
So I remember, like in the last handful of years,
like you know, you're like you're lining up for it
was a couple years ago. I was lighting up in
the D main and like, I'm racing with Buddy Kofoyd,
and I'm like, Buddy's really good in a dirt midget,
(11:41):
like he shouldn't be here versus I am, And you know,
so that's that's what I me. And it was one
of those kind of scenarios. But he had one bad
time he was on the racetrack and it just buried
him for the rest of the event. So it's hard.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm gonna say, yeah, because I was looking at the
results last year and you know, you made the A
man on your pre limn night, but like you said,
you have mechanical failures and then all of a sudden
you find yourself and you know, one of the two
E mains, and that's just you don't see that really
in any other race anywhere.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that's the thing. You can. You can make
the A main on your prelim night and you're still
in the you know, the E the F main and
you made the A main. Like but you know when
there's you know, five A mains for the week, that's
just how it's gonna go, right.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So but yeah, I'm looking forward to, uh, you know,
being able to watch Chili Bowl and seeing how all
of our local guys get to do. And it's just
there's no really no other race like it. You just
get everyone from all different walks of racing and they
all converge in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, it's it's a super fun event. So I I
hadn't run it since I think two thousand and nine
was the last year that they had announced that I
had run it. And then so two years ago when
we went back they announced that it was like, you know,
they announced that I roll on the racetrack and they're like, oh,
it's been you know, thirteen years since Cap Henry's front
the Chili Bowl. I'm like, there is kids racing this
(13:10):
event that weren't born the last time I was here.
Like this is bad, and you know, but it's it's fun.
You know. You get this for me, you get to
see it's good for business for you know, my other
my main job, SCS Gearbox. I get to see customers
that we only see that time of year, you know,
and that's about the biggest time you see people run
(13:31):
in their midgets, so that's when they need stuff for them.
But it's it's fun to go out there, you know.
I think it was it was two years ago, maybe
maybe it was last year. One of the years me
and Darren Nata ended up racing each other and like
the b Maine or something, so you know, that was
kind of cool. It's such a it's a fun event.
They it's well put together, you know, the obviously the
(13:53):
you know, everybody in charge. They've been doing it long enough,
they know what's going on, so it's well run. I
feel like I feel like it's run fairly, you know,
like I don't feel like you have to have a
name to get treated well, you know, no matter who
you are, I think you get treated the same, and
to me, that's pretty important.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I will kind of jump into this past, you know,
I guess we're currently in the off season leading into
the twenty twenty five season. The big news is you
know that the All Stars have you know, re emerged
for the twenty twenty five season. Is that something that
kind of like raised your eyebrows as as a team, like,
you know, have you looked at maybe running the All
(14:31):
Stars or is it just kind of kind of you know,
pick and choose and run more of that local schedule
or somewhere in between.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
We had talked to Farmer early on, you know, when
he was told me he was, you know, trying to
bring it back, and you know, for us, it just
at this time it just doesn't make sense. Zach and
I both work full time jobs. You know, Zach's gott
a son that's now doing some go karting. I hate
to put it this way, but it paid you know,
it pays out twenty thousand. We made that last year,
(15:01):
you know, between winning the Attica and the a f CS,
So I can you know, I can race for the
same point fund and not travel eight hours, you know.
So for for us, we're gonna we'll run some of
the races when they're close. Obviously, we'll run Ohio speed Week.
I think we've got some of the other miscellaneous dates
on the schedule, but our main focus will probably just
(15:22):
be you know, do Attica, Fremont, the a f CS,
and then you know we're playing on doing Kings Royal
and Knoxville Nationals. We'll run some other stuff in there too.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
And that that kind of you know, led into another
question I was going to ask. You know, when you're
putting together your schedule, how much of it do you
look at, like from the you know, the financial standpoint,
Like you said, you can run Attica Fremont af CS
and potentially take home thirty thousand if you win all
three championships, or do you you know, you want to
(15:51):
spend the extra money and travel costs and go run
for you know, maybe a little more per race, but
you know, twenty five at the end of a championship.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, for us, it definitely has to make sense financially.
You know, Jeff Ford still is still the majority funder
in that whole thing. You know, We've got a lot
of great marketing partners, but Jeff still mainly funds it
out of pocket. So it's got to make sense, you know.
And obviously Jeff still has a full time business that
he runs, you know, So it's just for us, it
(16:22):
wasn't feasible to go run the All Star deal, you know.
And there's the other hand to that. You know, Zach
and I have both done that. You know, we've we've
checked that Box. I'm not at the point anymore in
my career where like I have to go do something
like that to get my name out there. You know,
I'm happy doing what we've done the past couple of years.
(16:45):
You know. Obviously, we we want to go out, we
want to win as many races as we can. You know,
we always like challenging ourselves to try and be better.
But it wasn't worth going to chase the All Star title,
you know, financially, it just it didn't make sense to us,
right at the end of the day. That's it was
a business decision more than anything. But yeah, you know,
(17:07):
it's it's cool to see it back. You know, it's
a name that it has a deep history in sprint
car racing. You know, the All Star Circuit of Champions
was something that it definitely was a major factor in
my career, especially early on. You know. So I do
hope it succeeds and does well, and I hope they
can live up to you know what it What it
(17:28):
was to me, that's the big thing at the end
of the day is you know, I saw it in
the Guy Web era, I saw the Tony Stewart era,
and I hope it just continues to go forwards, you know,
for everybody.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Involved, right do you do you I don't know how
to word this one, but you know you have you
All Stars, you have Fast, you have a f c
S and you have you know, all your local shows
between Attica, Fremont, Wayne County, Atomic whatnot. You know, how
how do you think everyone will kind of manage this,
(18:00):
you know, this year with you know, a few extra
races added in with the All Stars that you know,
and everyone I don't know, like we're trying not to
step on you know, tracks are trying not to step
on toes of big events. But it's gonna happen eventually.
So do you think everyone's gonna be able to kind
of work together just to you know, they say the
(18:23):
rising tide raises all ships.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I sure hope. So, you know, it's it's one of
those double edged swords that you know, you know, it's
at some point stuff's gonna overlap. You just can't help,
you know. But it's one of those things that I
hope that it works out to the point that you
maybe you get more cars that come out overall because now, well, hey,
you know, now instead of going to the All Star
(18:48):
race and there's fifty five cars. Maybe you go to
an All Star race and there's thirty five to forty cars,
but now there's a fast race that now also has
twenty five to thirty cars. You know, so guys are
gonna think they have a better chance of making a
show because you know, they're not fighting the whole field overall,
they're fighting a smaller field. You know, So in a
perfect world, to me, that's you know, that's what happens
(19:10):
is that, you know, you kind of the guys from
that region kind of get split and they go, you know,
some go one way, some go the other. But you
still support the fields. You know. Obviously, I don't want
it to become a deal where you know, you're showing
up to a race. I went to some of the
guy web shows where we would show up to All
Star races and there would be you know, eight cars
at an All Star race, and it was embarrassing. You know.
(19:32):
That's that's what I don't want to see happen. I
don't think you know, farmers smart enough to not to
not go anywhere right off the rip where they don't
have cars already. But you know that's I ideally, I
think that's what should happen, is that you know that
there's there's enough cars. You know, you go through and
look at the stats for the year, there's enough cars
(19:54):
that it should be able to support the races. But
ultimately it's gonna come down to the series, to the
series and the tracks that you know, people are gonna
support the places that they they like going, that they
feel like they're appreciated at, and they're not gonna go
to the places that you know, they're not treated well.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
At m Do you do you think it's going to
entice some of the you know, maybe some of the
outsider teams, some of those you know, regional or true
outlaw teams to maybe come spend an extra weekend in Ohio.
I know, I was comparing some schedules and I've seen,
you know, there's a couple of weekends at least where
you know, there's you know, an All Star Race Friday,
(20:33):
All Star Race Saturday, and then maybe a fast race
on Sunday for example, you know, all race and for
a little extra money, do you do you think that
might entice some of those extra teams to come out
and you know, spend some time in Ohio.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's I mean, it's always possible. It's just it. You know,
I haven't looked obviously, haven't looked at all the schedules
how they overlap. You know, I think you're gonna see
more some more guys, you know, with the power ideal,
they've up there deal a lot. You see, if you
see more teams get formed, you know, teams are gonna
go look for places to race. You know, I definitely
(21:11):
think it kind of helps your odds. You know, like
Brady had announced he was gonna run his uh wing
car way more. You know, so maybe some of that stuff,
you know, Tysons, somebody like Brady, you know, somebody of
that caliber to come. You know, hey, you know I'll
spend a week in Ohio, I can race, make some money.
You know, that's always a possibility that that's what happens.
So yeah, I do. I think it's possible. Yeah, I
(21:31):
definitely do. You know, obviously, when there's more races and
more money, you know, the guys that want to make money,
they're they're gonna show up, they're gonna race, and they're
gonna try and make money.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
M hm. So going back the last few years, you
and your crew chief Zack Myers. I mean, you guys
have been one of the most potent combos that we've
seen in Ohio, and you know quite a while. Do
you guys have like a secret to success or is
it just you know, is this is what it is?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I think it's just that we have a very good
we have a really good friendship, and in turn, that's
a good working relationship. Zach is highly intelligent. That's honestly,
one of the biggest factors is that, you know, he
just he's smart. He can figure things out, He's got
(22:24):
a good understanding. There's not many nights that him and
I are in disagreeance of the direction we need to
go on the car. Actually, actually last year, at one
point when we were struggling that, there was at one
point where I tried to get more involved to see
if I could help fix it, and all I did
(22:44):
was make it worse. And finally at one point I
was like, you know what, you just go back to
making all the decisions. I'll just stick to driving it
because I'm not helping the problem at all, you know,
So it's not and you know, we've kind of our
program has been switched around, you know, like we've run.
You know, different cars, different engines, you know, So it's
not like we just had one trick thing that we
(23:05):
figured out. I think it's just a good relationship. Like
I said, Zach's really smart. He's really meticulous. Like he
just he doesn't the car doesn't leave the shop if
he doesn't think it's ready to go, so that, you know,
those little things are what make a big difference. So yeah,
(23:26):
that's and you know he's he's good at making me confident.
We work well together. We communicate well at the racetrack.
You know, can kind of you know, even through hand signals.
When he's smart enough to stand in the spot where
I can see him. I always give him a hard
time about you know, it's really easy to find him
and the other twenty three crew guys in black. But
(23:50):
you know it's I think that's all it's been. It's
just you know, it's big. We've got years together. Zach's
first year helping me was twenty nineteen, you know, so
now we're going into you know, twenty twenty, so it's
been years of you know, working together and that and
that trust and just building and building and building, and
that's what it takes, you know, you go through periods
where you don't see you see guys that are early
(24:11):
together a year or two, and it's just it's it's
tough to compete against, you know, a team that's you know,
comfortable around each other and you'll confident in each other.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Mm hm. So, like when you come off of the
track after like hot lapse or qualifying or a heat
race or something, are you telling him like what you're
feeling and then he makes adjustments off of that or
is he kind of going off of like what he
sees on the track.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I think it's a little bit of both. You know,
I'll give him, I'll give him my feedback, but you know,
a lot of times it's equally. You know, he's like, hey,
it looks like it's doing this, and I'm like, you know, yeah, yes,
yes it is. That is what it's doing, you know,
or it's and it's the biggest thing we have is
that it's always to do it as soon as I
get off the race track while it's fresh, you know,
(24:57):
don't don't let it sit. And then you're like, wow,
maybe was this or maybe it was this, but yeah,
I you know, I guess you'd have to ask Zach
to be honest, he listens to me at all, or
you know, if he just Hubert when I pull her in,
But I think he listens to me at least.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
It's it's just been a ben a roue of this
entire time. He just does what he's gonna do and
just disregards anything.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, you know what, honestly, that might be what he does.
And it's probably not a half bad idea.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you have, it's worked out well so far, if
that's exactly. I mean, do you guys feel like, you know,
given all of your success the last couple of years, like,
do you feel like you have a target on your back?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
You mean, you guys have been the guys to beat.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I don't know, I don't ever really look at it
that way. M M. You know, guys always tell us, hey,
you know, you're the car to beat when you show up,
and you know, you take it as a compliment, and
I don't. I try not to ever be big headed
about it, you know, just just grateful for his fast
as we've been and you know, I I feel like
everybody treats us, you know, races as well. You know,
(26:07):
Calee was a huge competitor this year, you know, so
is Caleb Henry, you know, and I felt like all
of us raced pretty well.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Caleb and I had a run in earlier in the
year and we talked it out, and after that, you know,
we had some really good races that were fun. You know.
So I don't I don't know, I try not to
look at it that way.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
H How cool is it, you know, being able to
be in a position where you know, guys come in
like Kale and Caleb and uh, you know, you get
to race hard with them, you know, week in and
week out.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It all it does is it makes you better. You know.
I've always said that. You know, people are like, oh,
you know, you know, you're having a harder year. Kal's
making it harder on you. Caleb's making it harder on you.
And it was like, yeah, but you know, you know,
to me, I'd rather you know, get pushed like that
and get better then just become stagnant and not try
and not try to get better, you know, So to me,
(27:01):
it made it fun. You know, there was different challenges.
You know, Kale raced the tracks differently than you know
most of the local guys did, so you know, it
was a challenge, you know, to figure out how to
race with him. Well, you know, same with Caleb. Caleb
was so strong at Fremont, you know, so learning to
you know, learning to race with Caleb, you know what
what he was good at, you know what what he
(27:22):
wasn't good at. You know that's the name of the game,
you know. So it just it pushed us to be better,
you know what I'm I'm I appreciate the challenges like that.
I think I think it's good for the sport.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
We're we're still you know, two or three months away
from you know, getting the Northwest Ohio season started. But
do you have any goals for like the twenty twenty
five season.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I don't really lay out goals, to be honest, I'd
like to do. You know. It felt like last year
we had a chance to get back into the double
digits for wins and kind of let a few get
away from us, you know, so I'd like, I guess
that would be like one of my main goals is
to you know, do the double digits for wins again.
But after that, you know, just try and try and
(28:04):
put together a successful season. You know, we've been fortunate
to win some championships the last few years. You know,
to keep that going would be really cool, but it's
it's tough. I don't feel the I don't feel the
pressure this year that I did last year. Last year
in the off season, I felt like there was a
(28:25):
lot of pressure to you know, after winning all three
to come back out and you know you had to
be you had to be that good again. This year,
I feel like, you know, after the comeback we made that,
it's definitely I've taken the pressure off myself and you know,
we can just we can just go race and go
do our thing, and you know, after that everything, you know,
(28:45):
if it's meant to happen, it'll fall in place, and
if it's not meant to happen, it won't happen.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So what you're saying is instead of like nine second
place finishes, you're hoping to turn some of those into
more wins.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You just love bringing that stand up, don't you You
You love it? Yeah, you know, if we could, you know,
if we could cut that number down a little bit
and put more of those in the win total, that
that would be pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
For the longest time back in I don't know, twenty nineteen,
or you know, twenty twenty somewhere around there. It was
always I was always interviewing Nate Dussell after he finished
second place, and I think the you know, one of
the first times he like got that you know, four
to ten win in his family car. I don't even
know if I was there, so I don't know. I
(29:31):
just always have an act for you know, getting the
second place guys, I guess, but I don't know. I mean,
seventeen starts and you have eight wins and nine second
place finishes. That's not too bad.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I guess it's fairly acceptable.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I suppose. Uh so, yeah, So one more thing before
we wrap up here, I'm bringing up I'm bringing back
the pass along question, where cap you get to ask
our next guest a question. And our next guest is
going to be the director of operations at Attica, Justin Lesky. So, gop,
(30:06):
if you know you have any burning questions for Justin,
this is your opportunity to ask him on in a
public space.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm not gonna get too hard on him. But so
the fun fact is is Justin and I actually went
to school together. He was only like a grade ahead
of me, And I'm gonna throw us both under the
bus here. We were both in choired together. So you
can ask Justin if he remembers how many times I
actually showed up to a concert or not?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
What did you guys? What what part did you guys sing?
Do you remember if you face or.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Tenor or base base? Okay, I don't think I ever
truly paid attention at all. And we were in a
choir that you had to try out nonetheless. Oh man, yeah,
it's terrible. Oh yeah. So we were both in you know,
and we would always talk about race and we'd always
get yelled at. But yeah, it was it was fun.
(31:01):
Like I've known just in a long time. So he's
doing a great job at Attica. I've told him that.
But that should be a fun question, see if you remember, all.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Right, that'll be fun. Yeah, that's uh yeah, we get
I get to interview him here. I guess that's tomorrow night,
so you'll be a good one. Well I'm excited to
uh ask him that now. So yeah, cap, we we
thank you for joining us for episode one twenty five,
and uh you know, we wish the best of luck
for you at the Chili Bowl here next week and
(31:30):
in the rest of the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Awesome, thanks man, I really appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
All right, man, have a good evening and yeah, we
will see you at the racetrack in the stack back
(32:08):
back great
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