by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
When you’re on, you’re on. Cap Henry and the Jeff Ward Motorsports #33W team have been on all season and Friday night at Attica Raceway Park with the AFCS Sprints was no different for Henry and Co. They’d have to go through 16 other teams vying for a spot on the horse track at night’s end, though. Once the green flag flew for 30 laps of action, it was clear that one team had the car to beat.
Trey Jacobs and Byron Reed led the field to the green flag. Reed didn’t get off to the best start, which allowed Cap Henry, who started in fourth, to jump to the high side of turns one and two and blitz the front row and take the lead down the backstretch. At the end of lap one, Henry led by .827 seconds over Jacobs.
“I knew that they watered the top [of turns one and two] and I did enough warm up laps there and knew it was pretty sticky,” said Henry. “Byron got a bad start, so I was able to pull up on Byron. He moved down to the middle, so that left the top wide open. I had a good enough run coming off of two that I could clear Trey.”
It was off to the races, figuratively and literally for Henry after that. He extended his lead over Jacobs to 1.565 seconds by lap five, but was getting into some lapped traffic. Jacobs and third running Travis Philo were able to cut into Henry’s lead as the 33W machine navigated through said lapped traffic.
“I had to pace myself early. I knew that the track was good and that I had the dominant line. So I just had to pace it and not f— it up,” continued Henry.
Henry eventually had to start throwing sliders at the lapped traffic on lap 11. Henry’s slider didn’t stick right away, though and he found himself battling with the cars he was trying to put a lap down. This cut Henry’s lead down to .579 seconds on lap 12, but Henry was able to quickly gap Jacobs once again by lap 12. The caution came out on lap 15, which would get Henry out of traffic.
“I was just trying to clear them as quickly as I could,” said Henry about the lapped traffic. “I had a couple issues with a couple guys doing some oddball stuff that didn’t make sense.”
It was all Cap on the ensuing restart, as he put a second between himself and Jacobs as another yellow came out on lap 17.
The red 33W was way too good on the top of turns one and two on the restart, and left Jacobs and Philo no chance. Philo had his hands full momentarily with Stuart Brubaker and Zeth Sabo on the restart, but Philo was able to fend them off. Henry approached lapped traffic once again on lap 22 with a 2.162 second lead. Jacobs would end up bobbling on the top of turns one and two, relinquishing the second spot to Philo. This allowed Henry’s lead to balloon to 3.772 seconds on lap 26.
Henry wasn’t quite out of the woods with lapped traffic as the laps wound down. One lapped car had a moment in front of Henry coming to the white flag, which killed his momentum, but Philo was too far back to capitalize.
Henry would go on to win by 3.033 seconds over Philo and Jacobs for win number four on the year, his first at Attica for 2023. Not bad for a driver and crew chief that found themselves a new home in the offseason.
“Everything has gone really well. Having Zack [Myers, crew chief] come on board was a big deal. Zack has gotten everything in place for what we needed. Zack is top-notch on preparing cars and making sure spares are ready. We really changed the program from what we had the last couple of years. Everything has worked really well for what we’re doing and it shows how hard everyone worked in the offseason,” concluded the race winner.
Cap Henry’s full interview can be viewed at this link: Cap Henry post-win with the AFCS at Attica 6/2/23
AFCS 305’s: In 305 action, it would be Bryan Sebetto picking up his first win of the year, but it was in no ordinary fashion. In a race that seemingly no one wanted to win, it was Sebetto inheriting the lead late that led to his visit to the horsetrack.
Brandon Moore and Paul Weaver were on the front row, and it was Weaver using the outside to his advantage to drive around Moore on the opening leap. Moore would then relinquish second to Jamie Miller on lap two. Sebetto worked his way into third at the start of lap three as the caution came out for the first time.
Miller took a peak under Weaver for the lead on the restart, but Weaver held serve and continued to lead. Miller slowly started to reel Weaver in, but the yellow would come out on lap 10 for Seth Schnieder. The first big moment happened on the restart, as Miller bobbled on the top of turns one and two, relegating him to sixth. Sebetto and Steve Rando then engaged each other for second, which Rando eventually staked claim to.
After another yellow, Rando went to the bottom on the restart and temporarily took the lead from Weaver, but Weaver fought right back and got the lead, only to see Rando slide him and end up as the leader. Rando then checked out. He built a lead of 1.3 seconds on lap 18. Then, another big moment.
Rando blew it off the top of turn one. Weaver was once again your leader with Sebetto tracking him down in lapped traffic. Cue another big moment. Lap 22, Weaver did a 360 in turns three and four, collecting Sebetto in the process. They both kept their cars running, but the yellow came out. Since Weaver did the 360, he was going to be credited for the caution. Although he was involved in the wreck, Sebetto kept his car running, which meant he got to keep his spot, which was now the lead.
Sebetto was now your leader over Rando and Miller, who clawed their way back up to the front. Rando and Miller battled for second which allowed Sebetto to run away with his first win of the 2023 season.