SANDUSKY, Ohio — J.J. Henes’ performance Saturday at Sandusky Speedway made the Must See Racing Maxima Midwest Lights finale look like a microcosm of the year as a whole.
The season’s most dominant driver set a new track record in qualifying, then led 20 of the 30 laps in the feature to clinch his second Midwest Lights championship in winning fashion.
Henes passed early leader Charlie Baur on lap 11 with an outside sweep through turns three and four in traffic and never looked back, pacing the remaining distance at the half-mile oval despite one double-file restart.
After leading by as much as five seconds in the second half of the race, Henes took the checkered flag 3.179 seconds in front of rival Cody Gallogly to end Gallogly’s two-year reign atop the series.
“It feels great to get the second title; it’s what we set out to do when the year began,” said Henes, whose final margin in the standings was 23 points. He also became the first Midwest Lights driver to reach the 10-win threshold.
“That race was all in lap traffic and restarts … and you just have to pound out positions whenever you can,” he continued. “[Baur] got hung up a bit behind the [No.] 11 [Rick Wichtner] and was a little unsure, I think, of what to do … and I just slipped to the outside of him when he lost his momentum.
“To finish it off here, though; this is where everything started in my career, and to finally get a feature win in a sprint car at this place – let alone a championship – means a ton.”
Though Brandon Tregembo started from the pole position, Baur used a superior launch to grab the lead from the outside lane at the drop of the green, while Henes surged from sixth to third on the opening circuit before overhauling Andrew Bogusz for second place moments later.
From there, Henes laid in wait behind Baur until the pair approached lap traffic, never more than a half second back before Baur had to jump out of the throttle while passing Wichtner on lap 11.
It was at that point that Henes pounced, flaring to Baur’s right entering turn three before edging ahead at the flagstand and completing the pass for good in turn one.
Moments later, the lone yellow flag of the race waved when Ethan Rader spun on the backstretch, falling out with a mechanical failure and clinching the championship for Henes at that point.
The restart that ensued saw Baur and Gallogly retain second and third behind Henes, who raced away to a second advantage in the first lap after the restart and put it on cruise control from there.
Gallogly then used a similar outside pass off of turn four to take second from Baur coming to 11 to go, ending as the runner-up to Henes in both the final feature and the season standings.
“I was wishing we had a few extra laps there at the end,” admitted Gallogly. “It all has to work out your way [to win a championship], and J.J. just beat us this year. There’s no excuses. He ran strongest all season long, and my hat goes off to those guys because we have the utmost respect for J.J. and Jon [Henes, J.J.’s father]. They beat us this time, but we’ll come back even stronger because of that.”
Baur’s third-place finish marked his best run all year, with Andrew Bogusz crossing fourth to secure a career-best points ranking of third. Josh Sexton closed the top five.
Henes’ track record in qualifying was a 15.833-second lap, the first sub-16 second time by a crate sprint car in Sandusky Speedway history. Rookie Keegan Weese and Bogusz split the eight-lap heat race wins.
Henes will be honored for his Midwest Lights championship during Must See Racing’s annual Night of Champions celebration on Jan. 11.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 36jr-J.J. Henes [6], 2. 27-Cody Gallogly [5], 3. 23-Charlie Baur [2], 4. 17-Andrew Bogusz [4], 5. 51s-Joshua Sexton [3], 6. 1-Brandon Tregembo [1], 7. 37-Keegan Weese [7], 8. 77-Parker Corbin [9], 9. 11-Rick Wichtner [10], 10. 38-J.D. Evans [8], 11. 52-Ethan Rader [11].