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All Star champion Kalib Henry talks 2025, injury, future plans
JW: Hey, Kalib! First off, congratulations on winning the 2026 All Stars Championship! What’s it like to be a champion on the return of the series; especially, for your first time on the Regional tour?
KH: Thank you! I really appreciate it. We weren’t sure what we were going to do at the beginning of the year… I really have to thank my team [#101 The Running Boxer Farm] for all their support and for wanting to put together a calendar that we decided to run. To be able to run the series and be as successful as we were was a great achievement. To be able to win races and win a championship with the series returning and our first time running it together was surreal. Our whole team worked super hard to get here… It hasn’t really sunk in yet… It probably will over the course of the offseason.
JW: What made you and the team want to take on the “return” of the All Stars schedule on a full-time? What was the key decision as a collective group that made you decide to run a series full-time in 2025?
KH: Honestly, all of the benefits that we saw with the series that the All Stars were giving the teams and drivers made it an easy decision from our end. There were a lot of bonuses and benefits that came along with running the entire series and joining on full-time, even with us having to travel a bit throughout the year. Even with my accident and me being in Ohio all alone, not having any family, friends, or a support network, the series helped me out during my recovery. They have a great group of people, and having all their support during that time made it easy to want to compete with the series full-time even more. As a team, we felt it was a good opportunity for us to try something new and see where we ranked amongst our peers on the regional. It was a tough year, as it was just me and my crew chief [Andy Potter] working together during the whole season. A big thanks also goes to Jim [Muth] for all of his support on the ownership side of the team. I’m happy with our decision, though.
JW: You have been involved with an interesting year from your perspective… How would you review the 2025 season? I would assume it would be hard to give a one-word answer on it?
KH: No, not at all. I feel like we could have done a bit better. I was, in a sense, starting over with a new crew chief this year, having Andy [Potter] come on board. It was definitely up and down this year for sure. Obviously, getting hurt in mid-July really put a damper on things on both sides. I feel like we were just getting into the groove up until that point. I had to mentally be strong and physically get myself to a stage where I could get myself ready to race again after being in the hospital. I was pushing myself to get ready to come back as soon as possible. I worked too hard to get here and I wanted to make sure I was ready to compete once I was able to. I would have loved to win a couple more races, like everyone else who competes likes to say, but we were pretty solid considering everything we went through. We honestly had a really good year on paper, but as I said, every racer wants to win more.
JW: You touched on this in the last question briefly, but you were injured at Attica Raceway in a crash during the Tuesday night World of Outlaws feature. What do you recall from that night?
KH: We were off a bit that night to start off… I made a mistake on the first lap of the B Main. I was pushing pretty hard from that point as I had to come through the field. From that point on, I charged forward. I made contact with a car and went into the catch fence. I remember most everything, but there were some foggy areas in my mind from that night. I was in the hospital that night, and on the next day, I was asking if we could pull the spare car, while I was in the ICU, asking if we could go to Eldora. My dad and crew chief gave me a “No!”. We are going so fast now, and everything is so rigid with these cars, so something has to give. We have the best seats on the market, solid-made cars, along with excellent safety crews, with all these series and tracks. But, at the end of the day, we are going 40 MPH faster than they used to forty years back. These things can happen…
JW: What was it like for you mentally and physically to come back from your injury to return to racing? Were you apprehensive at all, or were you ready to jump right back into the fire?
KH: Like I said, Dad always instilled in us that racers race, and I knew from the day that I left the hospital that I was ready to go. Mentally, I knew that I needed to get back in the race car. I turned up to the first weekend back, and I knew I needed to compete and win that night with the All Stars. I was still in a ton of pain. I didn’t feel great at all. As I said, I knew mentally that I would be able to do it by getting in the car as soon as possible, but physically it was tough for me… The mental game in this sport is everything. I know that I can’t do my job well unless I run up to the wall and put down a good lap.
JW: From your end, how do you rate the transition from racing out on the West Coast to now being a full-time driver in the Midwest? How much has that helped you from a driving point of view, by being able to transition the skills you learned on the West Coast to meshing them with the new environment of racing in the Midwest?
KH: Yeah, it’s helped me a lot as a driver. It’s easier to slow a driver down than to speed them up. Once I adapted to some of the tracks in the Midwest when it came to the curbing and some of the tracks slicking up, I got more comfortable. For example, when running at Placerville or Silver Dollar, you're up on the wheel wide open and can't take a single corner off, whereas when it gets really slick and slow, you know from qualifying times that you might drop two seconds. Having that understanding has helped my decision-making get so much better. My overall judgement of driving has become a lot better because of the diverse experience I have had on many different tracks up to this point. It took me half of last year to realize that I was going to do this for a living, and it allowed me to be more aggressive, but knowing my limit.
JW: In recent weeks, your name has been floated in some rumours for 2026. Do you have any desire to race on the National level at some point, whether it’s with High Limit or the World of Outlaws? On the flip side, are you fine with pursuing your career at the regional level for the time being?
KH: I would love to go National, whether it's with High Limit or Outlaws. Both my car owner and crew chief know that. I know where I am at right now as a driver, and I’m happy with my progression forward. This year was another stepping stone in running with the All Stars. If I had a team present an offer, I would sit down with my team and family to discuss whether or not it’s worth pursuing. I don’t want to burn a bridge, as I’m really happy with where I’m at with my team, but I need to keep my opportunities open if something presents itself to me at some point. I’m open to whatever happens in the future, but again, I’m very happy to be with the Running Boxer Farm team. I was raised right around doing the best you can with what you have. It’s gotten me to where I am today. We will see what happens with the silly season for 2026…
JW: To end off our chat, I have to ask you what the plans are for next year? What are you looking at from your end as we look forward to the 2026 calendar?
I’m committed to the #101 Running Boxer Farm team for next year. As I mentioned, though, if the door opened for something on the National level that I feel would be a great fit for me as a driver, I would be stupid not to do it and take the opportunity. As of now, the plan is to run the All Stars for 2026 and defend our championship title. I want us to win more races and take another step forward as a team. I want to run more races in different areas if I can, whether it’s National races or other local races that we can make work on our schedule next year. We have a lot of options to put together a schedule that blends well with next year's All Star schedule. Other than that, I need to get some stuff handled on my side. With the team, we need to get a lot of things organized for next year during the offseason. I’m just planning on healing up this offseason and spending as much time with my family, friends, and enjoying the time off.
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Hoosier exploring changes to sprint car tires and we've got details on a recent quiet test, plus we'll dive into a big championship weekend and more.
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