Henry Scores Wayne County Victory; Speedweek Runner-Up

FREMONT, Ohio (June 22, 2026) - When Kalib Henry slowed from the lead with a shredded left rear tire at Monday's Ohio Sprint Speedweek event at Wayne County Speedway, his 2026 Speedweek campaign seemed to be following in last year's footsteps. After a seventh-place finish at Attica and finishing just outside the top ten at Sharon, the California native was now running 17th with just 22 laps to go. The mountain seemed insurmountable and the chance at a Speedweek crown was seemingly fading from Henry's grasp. That's when the 26-year-old pilot of the Racers for Life No. 101 did a quick soul search under yellow and knew it was now or never.

When the field restarted with 22 laps to go, Henry quickly charged to 11th in just five laps. He cracked the top ten with 15 to go before the field was brought to halt after an incident with race leader Devon Borden and a lap car with 13 laps remaining. Calamity followed on the ensuing restarts when Brock Hallet would get upside down and bring the field back to halt before a lap could be completed. On the second attempt, the field completed just a lone lap before third place running Cale Thomas became a victim to a flat right rear tire. A quick three lap stint allowed Henry to drive around Ricky Peterson and Trey Jacobs to move into the top five before a caution eventually led to an open red for fuel. 

With just over a heat race in distance remaining, Henry restarted fifth behind leader Darin Naida, Brandon Spithaler, Cap Henry, and Danny Dietrich. As Cap Henry and Spithaler battled for second, Kalib got around Dietrich and used his momentum on top to get around Cap, who wheelied off the bottom of turn two, with three to go. When the white flag flew, Spithaler had reeled in leader Naida with Henry just over half a straightaway back. A slider for the lead by Spithaler in turn one and two slowed the leading duo up enough to allow Henry to get a run down the backstretch and on the entry to turn three, he made his move. With Naida and Spithaler both electing to run the top, Henry drove his Valvoline, Triple J Towing, Pub 400, Butlerbuilt Seats, Running Boxers Farm, FK Rod Ends machine to the bottom with a massive two for one slide job attempt. Henry cleared Naida, who then turned down the track in an attempt to crossover Henry. The two-drag raced to the line with Henry edging out Naida by four hundredths of a second to score his first All Star Circuit of Champions victory of 2026 and his second career Ohio Speedweek victory. 

"I think my best finish here is like 17th or something like that," a noticeably worn-out Henry said in victory lane. "Andy [Potter] gave me a bad fast race car. He made my life so easy tonight. That was a ton of fun...I didn't even see the white flag; I just saw an opportunity to throw a bomb." Earlier in the day, it was announced that Wayne County would replace Atomic Speedway for Saturday's $10,000-to-win. "I was not looking forward to coming here and I think Sharon really helped. Just going and putting the car on the fence like that. Definitely was a confidence booster."

The win launched Henry from sixth in Speedweek points to third, cutting the deficit from 30 to 12 points. For Henry, the week started with promise when the team set quick time at Attica and charged from fourth to second in the heat race, but the momentum stalled out there when the team ended the first night with a seventh-place finish. The following night at Sharon, Henry once again started the night strong with a second-place qualifying effort and third place heat finish but ran into trouble in the dash when he would spin from fourth and finish eighth. Henry's troubles would progress as he fell from his eighth place starting spot to finish eleventh. Mother nature erased Millstream Speedway's date from the Speedweek schedule on Sunday, June 14th. All Star and track officials at Eldora Speedway work diligently to get the show in on Tuesday, June 16th, but a pair of rain showers between qualifying flights had other plans.

The week picked up racing action again on Thursday at Waynesfield Raceway Park. It marked the only night of the six completed events that Henry qualified outside of the top three when he qualified 14th. Henry was never able to fully recover in heat race action and was forced to run B-Main where he finished third and transferred to the A-Main. On the narrow, slick racing surface, Henry gained nine spots from his 23rd starting spot to finish 14th. 

Henry and Co. returned "home" for Friday, June 19th's event at Fremont Speedway. Much like at the beginning of the week, Henry quickly set the tone for the night by going quickest in qualifying. In heat race action, Henry advanced one spot to finish third and qualified for the dash where he would finish fourth. When the green flag flew for the A-Main, Henry used the top side of the racetrack to move into third before battling Tim Shaffer for several laps for second. Henry cleared Shaffer for good on lap seven and set sights on race leader Cale Thomas. It became a battle of the Henrys on lap 12 when Cap Henry got around Kalib for second. Kalib would run in third when the first caution of the race would fly with 16 laps to go. Cap would get around Thomas for the lead on the restart. Another caution on lap 25 regrouped the field and allowed Kalib to mount a charge against Thomas on the restart. The two raced side-by-side for several laps before a caution with three to go would setup a shootout to the finish. On the restart, Kalib banged off the razor thin cushion to get by Thomas and mounted a charge against Cap but would come up short as the lap counter hit zero.

Entering Saturday's championship event back at Wayne County, Kalib was 12 points behind leader Cap with Dietrich in-between, eight points behind the leader. Picking up where he left off on Monday night, Kalib was the fastest car in Flight B of qualifying. Following heat race action, where Henry finished fourth, the team thrashed to replace the entire rear end and driveline assembly of the No. 101 machine. With no time for setup adjustments, Henry's pole starting spot in the dash was short lived as Cap Henry, Zeth Sabo, Thomas, and Dietrich were able to get by. From the inside of the third row for the A-Main, Henry got up to third but was unable to get any more speed out of his Rider Racing Engines powered 410 as a hard charging Naida got around Henry for third. An open red with nine laps to go allowed Andy to go to work on the No. 101. In the closing circuits, Kalib was able to get around Cap for third.

Cap's fourth place finish was enough to secure the 2026 Ohio Sprint Speedweek championship with Kalib finishing as the runner-up, ten points behind Cap. The week allowed Kalib to extend his overall All Star points lead to 34 points ahead of Cale Thomas. Officially, Henry ends his 2026 Speedweek campaign with a stat line of six starts, four top tens, three top fives, and a lone victory. Henry's average finish was a 6.3 and his qualifying times averaged an impressive 3.3 on the scoring pylon.

Future plans for Henry and Racers for Life No. 101 are still being determined. The All Star Circuit of Champions return to action on July 31st at Hartford Speedway, a track that saw Henry score one of his four All Star victories in 2025.

To get the latest news and updates about Kalib Henry's schedule, follow Kalib Henry Racing on Facebook.

2026 Season Stats (U.S. Races Only)
16 Races / 2 Wins / 6 Top-5s / 8 Top-10s

Next Events
TBD

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Media Contact
Zane Scott
Zane Scott Media
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Photo By: Zane Scott Media