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That’s why the Coon Valley, Wis., man is going for it now — or at least very soon. In about a month or so, Henderson will park his No. 33 stock car and begin a far more difficult chase. One that he hopes will result in a full-time job for a race team.
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Late Model driver Matt Henderson will be climbing out of his No. 33 stock car and heading to Mooresville, N.C. in hopes of finding a full-time job for a race team. Erik Daily photo |
Henderson, you see, is about to pack up — yes, he’s taking his girlfriend, Brittany Ludwig, with him — and head to Mooresville, N.C., which is the stock car racing hub of the country. It’s where the majority of Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck teams call home, and where the racing jobs are.
It’s a big gamble — Henderson has some leads, but doesn’t have a job locked up yet — but one he’s sure he wants to take.
“Now is the time to do it. I am young,” Henderson said. “The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work out and I move back home. Like my mom said, if this is my passion and what I want to do, I should go for it.”
Henderson hasn’t really gone for it in his brief Late Model career, but he has made steady progress since he jumped into the Late Model field on a full-time basis last season. He did run five races in 2005.
“I have always been interested in racing. I raced go-karts since I was nine, and won a couple of championships doing that,” Henderson said. “Once I was 16 my dad (John) bought Mike Belling’s backup car. He worked on Mike Belling’s crew for seven years.”
Henderson said he wanted to preserve his rookie status (five races or less) in 2005, and at the same time, wanted to see what it was like going from a several hundred pound go-kart to a several thousand pound race car.
“It is a lot harder than it looks. I was going out there and thinking, ‘Oh, this ain’t that hard.’ I was only doing 23-second laps. Then I asked myself, ‘Where am I supposed to come up with two more seconds?’ It was scary at first, but it’s not really scary any more.”
What’s scary is when Henderson, who works for his dad’s drywall business — John’s Drywall and Construction — thinks about breaking into the big-time racing world sometime in mid- or late August. He’s excited about chasing his dream, but a bit nervous about not having anything concrete lined up.
“My cousin, Tony Leis, he just moved back down there (to Mooresville). He works for a truck team that is just starting up, and he knows a lot of people down there,” said Henderson, a 2007 Central High School graduate. “I would love to go down there and drive, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim. If I want to go somewhere in racing other than La Crosse, you have to go where racing surrounds you.”
Henderson admits he will miss racing, and the folks that have helped him so much. His dad, his uncle (Steve Schmaltz), along with pit crew members D.J. McLees and Steve Bachman, have helped Henderson achieve a 15th-place standing in the Kwik Trip Late Model points so far this season.
In 10 starts, he has one top-10 feature finish and one heat win. His average feature finish is 14th, which isn’t bad considering where he was at a little more than two years ago.
“If you ask me, I am still a rookie compared to everyone else. I am more confident when I start in the front of a race,” Henderson said. “I’m not as nervous as I used to be. I know I can be fast. It’s a lot better this year. Every week we find something else that will make us faster.”
Henderson said he still worries about making a mistake “and making everyone else mad” on the track, but realizes some things are just part of racing. What he has learned on the track and off it, he said, should help him in his job quest.
“I don’t have any timeline. The sooner I get down there (Mooresville) the sooner it could happen. The worst part about it (moving) I have two Late Models sitting in the garage, good sponsors, my family is here and my sister is having a baby in August,” Henderson said.
“I just have to do what I have to do. My dad might not like this, but I don’t want to do drywall. What I want to do is work on race cars, and that (Mooresville) is the place to be to do that.”
Jeff Brown can be reached at (608) 791-8403, or at jbrown@lacrossetribune.com
