Justin Henderson Having a Strong 2014!

Justin Henderson finished third at the Knoxville Nationals a year ago and although it was a career high moment for the 35 year old Sioux Falls native, he and the Bryan Sundby team are looking to move up the order on the podium. After racing in both the 360 and 410 classes this entire year at Knoxville Raceway they have more laps on the track than anyone else and should be a strong at the Nationals once again in 2014. With running both classes Justin is only eligible to win one of the Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series track championships as a driver, but owner Bryan Sundby is chasing owner’s points in both classes. They have won one feature in each class and have been leading the 360 points all season, while they sit second in 410 points. It’s been a grueling task to race two cars but they have been successful. Justin is a product of a racing family with his father Rod Henderson being a successful driver in the Midwest. Justin also comes from the rich sprint car heritage of the Sioux Falls area where everyone is chasing the shadow of hometown hero Doug Wolfgang. Henderson should have a legitimate shot to win the Nationals this year! 

EA: Why race in both the 410 and 360 classes this year?
JH: Over the winter Bryan Sundby, the main sponsors of the car, and everyone on the team were evaluating and looking to see what the season was going to hold and decided it was going to be the best option. I didn’t really have a lot to do with it. When they asked me if I wanted to run both classes, I of course said yes.

EA: You guys nearly have the 360 owners points nearly wrapped up. That has to feel good.
JH: The owner’s points are important for sure. We want to try to win both titles of course, I mean that’s what you shoot for, and having that step covered so far is great. Getting points is a bit of a roller coaster throughout the year with a lot of peaks and valleys, but I feel we have been more consistent than most just because of the work Bryan and the guy’s put in to give me the solid cars that we have.

EA: How important is having Al Parker in your corner at BDS Racing?
JH: Obviously Al Parker builds a really good motor and besides that the customer service is second to none. Any question you have about what you need to do with your motor for that given situation you just call Al and he will get you set up. That’s part of the deal, and that’s why his motors have been successful.

EA: Where and when did Justin Henderson start racing? 
JH: I started racing karts when I was seven years old. We had to lie about my age the first couple of years because back then they didn’t allow younger kids in (laughing). But nowadays they let you start racing karts when you’re five. My little brother, he has been racing for the past two seasons and he is twelve now and moving up through the ranks. But in karts back then there wasn’t as many classes and we did that on and off whenever my Dad (Rod) wasn’t racing. Of course my Dad raced for a long time from 1984 through 1996, so we raced karts a few seasons hit and miss. And then we moved up to four wheelers which was something with suspension. The idea there was to get laps in something with suspension before I moved up to 360 sprints and I quickly broke my leg on that and sat out the rest of the season.  I helped Dad for that final season before we moved up to the IMCA sprint cars at Huset’s, Rock Rapids, and Madison at Lake County Speedway where we won a championship, and then we won couple of championships at Huset’s. We were second in national IMCA points that first year we ran, so we were successful right out of the box.

EA: You had a very successful start to your career at Huset’s, how is it going this year there?
JH: I’ve won a couple of 360 championships and a 410 championship at Huset’s but that was a long time ago. Huset’s has changed an awful lot the past two years. This year seems like a whole new challenge to me because what I thought I knew is definitely out the window from the Huset’s I was used to racing. I’m still getting used to this Triple X car we are running with the BRC car there, and we are running Maxim frames with Bryan at Knoxville, but the Triple X seems pretty fast, just kind of putting the wrenches to them yet.

EA: I believe 1997 was your first visit to Knoxville as a driver, tell me what that like.
JH: The very first time I went to Knoxville was for the Knoxville Nationals, which was a brilliant idea (laughs) we didn’t have a strong motor but gave an attempt. I remember my Dad was sitting across from me in our little half ton Chevy pickup that we went took there and he looks at me and says, now Knoxville isn’t like the rest of the tracks you have run, when you get to the end of the straightaway, you don’t turn. I couldn’t get the whole don’t turn thing because I wasn’t used to not turning at a race track. So of course the first lap I turn the car pretty hard and found out what he meant. After that it’s been a learning curve at Knoxville for sure and it’s one of the tougher tracks in the country.

EA: You gained a lot of experience racing with the World of Outlaws for a couple of years.
JH: We ran with the World of Outlaws for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, on a tight budget to say the least. We ran those two seasons as thrifty as we could just to try to get some good racing and experience. My Dad built our motors and he did an excellent job, they held together and we never had any issues that way, but we had some decent finishes. We weren’t strong every night that’s for sure, but we were learning and had some good races.

EA: You ventured out east to Pennsylvania for a few years and won a race at Williams Grove, that is a big feather in your cap. Not many drivers have won a race at both Knoxville and the Grove.
JH: Winning a race at Williams Grove is a huge thing for me. I always wanted to win there and get that Williams Grove flag. I think we ended up winning three at Williams Grove and two at Port Royal when I was out in Pennsylvania when I was running for Sorokach Motorsports. Don and Charlie gave me good equipment and let me take care of everything. They hired a crew chief in Jim Shriner and after that we had a lot of success together. Really most of those wins came in one season, but we had a good solid three years out there with great 2011 season.

EA: Mid season last year you come to Knoxville and sit in the Sundby car for the first time on twin features night and won a feature. How surprised were you about being so successful so soon?
JH: I was comfortable the first time I sat in Bryan’s car. I remember that I had to slow and calm myself down because I had been running little bull rings in Ohio on short slick race tracks through the first half of that season with Rick Ferkel. Rick was awesome and I got to learn a lot from a living legend, and it was really fun. We tried really hard to be fast but it just didn’t work out and when I came back I was just itching to get into something fast.  When I got into Bryan’s car I was instantly comfortable and that made life really easy. To be honest I had a pretty good idea Bryan knew what he was doing. I was able to meet Bryan through Al Parker and if Al liked him, I knew Bryan had to be a pretty good dude and know his stuff. And those two together is a really good combination. Once I was able to get to the shop and take a look at everything that was going on and see the operation, it was no secret in my mind that we were going to be fast, and I think that confidence was a big reason why we were able to go out and win the first night out last year.

EA: What is your proudest moment in racing?
JH: I would have to say finishing third at the Knoxville Nationals. Up until then I had run fourth at the Kings Royal and that was good being really close to the lead pack and maybe having a chance to fight for the win at one point. But to run third at the Nationals was huge! Obviously nobody had as good of a car as Donny Schatz, but at the end we were as good as Brian (Brown) and we were all over him at the end.  He did a good job of holding me off which is all part of the Knoxville Nationals. That is a $37,500 difference between second and third and he did a good job of holding me off. We had a great race car, so that has to be one of my best accomplishments just to hold it together for 50 laps and have that good of a car to stay up front.

EA: Racing is a team sport, who besides Bryan helps you out?
JH: Jim Farland, Jimmy Rethmeier, Tristan Rethmeier, Steven Murphy, Randy Ray, Jason Ray. I can’t thank them enough for their support. these guys help us so much to have the cars that we need and I appreciate their help, We are looking forward to the Nationals!  

The BDS Motorsports team and Justin Henderson would like to thank all the fans and their partners; Eagle Equipment, American Fab, Midwest Power & Equipment, and Jafar Lawn Service, Karavan Trailers, and Zephyr.