By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
It was the Double Down Throwdown night at Fremont Speedway with the AFCS Series, where each division would run two 20 lap features after qualifying instead of the normal heat race, BMains, and a 30 lap feature. For the first feature, the lineup would be determined by qualifying times, plus a dice roll for an inversion by the fastest qualifier. The winner of the first feature would then roll two dice to determine the inversion for the second feature, and everyone outside of the inversion would line up by feature one results.
So, when Cap Henry, winner of Friday night’s AFCS Feature at Attica, set quicktime with a blistering 12.507 second lap, he had the honor of rolling the singular dice to set the inversion for feature number one. Henry rolled a six, so he would start feature one in sixth, and sixth-fastest qualifier Zeth Sabo would start on pole with Kasey Jedrzejek to his outside for the 20 lap, $2,000 to win feature one.
Feature One: On the start, there was a smidge of beating and banging, but the yellow flew in turn one when Cap Henry spun by himself. Thankfully, everyone avoided Henry and he would rejoin at the tail. Not great for Henry’s podium streak to start the season. On the ensuing restart–the lone restart of the feature– Sabo and Jedrzejek would find themselves side-by-side for the lead, but Jedrzejek would use the top to his advantage to drive around the outside of Sabo.
Jedrzejek gapped Sabo by .611 seconds on lap four, but would start to see some lapped traffic on lap five. As it turns out, Jedrzejek would work through the lapped traffic quickly, and see his lead grow to 1.285 seconds on lap seven, and by the halfway point of feature one, Jedrzejek was up by 2.134 seconds over Sabo, Darin Naida, Bryan Sebetto and Chris Andrews.
Jedrzejek nearly had a straightaway lead on Sabo by lap 12, but heavier lapped traffic loomed. This lapped traffic was a little trickier to navigate, but Sabo had his hands full with Naida for second place for a few laps, so Sabo couldn’t capitalize, and actually lost more ground to Jedrzejek as the laps wound down. Jedrzejek’s lead was up over the three second mark as the checkered flag flew. Jedrzejek scored his first Fremont 410 win by 3.663 seconds over Sabo and Naida. It was the first time that the Ed Neumeister owned 11N machine found victory lane at Fremont since the 2019 season, when Buddy Kofoid won the track championship. It was Jedrzejek’s second career 410 win. Jedrzejek would roll an 11 for the invert for feature two.
“We were really good all day,” said Jedrzejek. “We came out in practice and were trying to get back used to the 410 since we ran the 360 last night.”
“I was lucky enough to get the jump on Howdy [Zeth Sabo] two times, after they called the first start back, and that was that pretty much. I just had some lapped cars to pass, and we were good,” continued Jedrzejek.
“I knew it was going to be a little slick, I pulled the wing back a little bit before we even got going. I felt pretty good after that. Kent [Karhoff] had us dialed in. The gameplan remained the same for the second feature, despite now having to start eleventh, “We’ll try to pass as many cars as we did in the first feature with the lapped cars, and we should be good to get up there. I can’t really be patient because it’s only 20 laps and you just have to go,” Jedrzejek concluded.
Feature Two: The second portion of the double down throwdown saw Sean Rayhall and Stuart Brubaker on the front row, with Chris Andrews, Cap Henry, TJ Michael, and Kalib Henry rounding out the top three rows.
Rayhall got the lead early, but sixth-starting Kalib Henry was shot out of a cannon on the start and was all over Rayhall for the top spot, bringing Cap Henry with him. Kalib used the top of turns one and two on lap two to drive around the outside of Rayhall and claim the top spot. Cap Henry followed suit and took over second. The first caution came out on lap four as Tyler Schiets spun in turns one and two, nearly collecting Kalib.
Things got fun on the restart. Cap got a great restart and had a run on Kalib, and they raced side-by-side down the backstretch for the lead. Cap had a slight advantage at the start-finish line as they were nose-to-tail. Kalib went for the slider in turns one and two, but Cap was able to fend this attack off and they went back to being nose-to-tail. Kalib tried the slider again on the next lap, lap six, and this time, Cap couldn’t defend the move.
Kalib then started growing his lead over Cap to .795 seconds on lap eight. By lap nine, lapped traffic was ahead of the leader. At the halfway point on lap 10, Kalib’s lead was up to 1.597 seconds over Cap, Rayhall, and DJ Foos. Foos was getting closer to Rayhall for the final podium spot.
Heavier lapped traffic was now ahead of Kalib, but he was up by 2.536 seconds when the yellow flag came back out for a spinning Mike Keegan on lap 14. That’s when things went south for Kalib. Foos pulled up alongside of Kalib under yellow to let Kalib know his right rear tire was flat. To the work area your leader went. Heartbreak city for Kalib Henry. Cap then inherited the lead with Rayhall and Foos in tow on the restart. Neither had anything for Cap on the restart, but Foos was able to pass Rayhall for second on lap 15.
Foos could not match Henry’s pace, as Cap had a clear track in front of him. Cap rolled to a 1.788 second win over Foos and Rayhall. It was Cap’s fourth win of the season, and a good way to bounce back after his spin and subsequent eighth place finish in the first feature.
“I totally screwed up the first feature, spinning that thing out on the first lap all by myself. The second feature, I got a good restart and got to racing with Kalib, but after a couple laps, Kalib was definitely faster than we were. We just lucked out when that caution came out that Kalib had the flat tire. Otherwise, I don’t think we were beating him. I’ll take it, it’s better to be lucky,” said Cap Henry.
“It’s been a really good year,” continued Cap Henry. “I’ve always said I hate winning the first race of the year because I think it’s unlucky. I guess so far we’ve made it work. It shows how hard everyone is working; Zach Myers, Chris and Chad Wilson, Doug Berryman on shocks and Gary Griffith on our engines and Jeff [Ward, team owner] gives us really good equipment, and keeps letting us work at it and it shows how good this car is.”