Henry splits two to hold off Dussel in 410 feature at Speedway
FREMONT - Republic's Cap Henry knows the ups and downs of sprint car racing.
He rebounded Saturday to score his second 410 win of the season at Fremont Speedway on Roots/Poultry/Fort Ball Pizza Palace Night, after missing the feature Friday at Attica Raceway Park.
The win vaults Henry back into contention for the Kistler Racing Products/All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Attica Fremont Championship Series (AFCS) crown. Henry entered the race third in series points.
Henry's eighth career Fremont win wasn't easy as he made a phenomenal move to split two lapped cars with two laps to go in turns three and four as Nate Dussel was closing.
"These guys have been working really hard all year and we've been close a lot of times and just couldn't seal the deal," Henry said. "This goes out to all the crew guys who worked really hard to keep us out front. It was getting pretty hairy there at the end."
Pleasant Hill's Matt Westfall survived near-disaster on the final lap to score his second Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS) non-wing win of the season. Westfall, the current BOSS point leader, hadn't won a series race since the first event of the season.
The end was a thriller as Westfall got around Dallas Hewitt for the lead as they took the white flag with Cooper Clouse also battling for the top spot. Clouse made contact with Westfall, who did a 360 spin but kept going.
Clouse spun to set up a one-lap restart finish with Westfall maintaining the lead. Westfall was able to hold off a last lap charge from Hewitt in his Buckeye Machine mount for his first ever win at Fremont.
"I just held it to the floor and kept spinning the wheels to keep rolling," Westfall said. "It was tricky. The track had a lot of character. That was a heck of a race. I appreciate Ray Marshall for giving me the opportunity to run for him.
"We struggled for a little bit this season and crashed a car and got this new car and have been really good, but haven't been able to hit our feature set-ups. Hopefully this gets us going in the right direction."
The Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 Sprints was also a barn-burner. With five laps to go, leader Alvin Roepke had a hard time getting around a couple of lapped cars and John Ivy closed.
Roepke spun trying to hold onto the lead and Ivy took over. A caution with four laps to go gave Bobby Clark a shot at Ivy, but the defending Fremont track champion wasn't to be denied as he drove to his second victory of the year at Speedway.
The win, Ivy's fourth overall in 2019, was his 58th career victory at Fremont, tying him with Jim Linder for fourth on the track's all-time win list. Mark Keegan won 60 races.
It also puts Ivy back in the chase for the title of the KS Sales and Service AFCS.
Ivy entered third in series points and the victory was worth $1,000, thanks to the Pub 400.
"Pretty cool to tie Jim Linder," Ivy said. "He was always one of my heroes. Me and Mark raced back in the day and I got to race with Jim just a few times, but I sat up in the grandstands and watched him a lot."
Dussel was second in the 30-lap Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprints A-main, followed by Brian Lay, Chris Andrews and Cale Conley.
Hewitt was second in the 25-lap BOSS feature, followed by Cody Gardner, Carmen Perigo and Steve Irwin. Henry took a nasty tumble in Turn 3 on Lap 9 and walked away unscathed.
Clark was second in the 25-lap 305 A-main, followed by Tyler Street, Jamie Miller and Shawn Valenti.
Speedway is host to Baumann Auto Group Night with the AFCS 410 sprints battling for $4,00 to win July 27. The AFCS 305 sprints and dirt trucks race.