User blog:Ajaxcupseries/2020 Little General 200 Review: Henderson Jr.’s Resurgence, End Of One Era, Beginning Of Another?

By: Charles Fallon - The Fallon Corner

With a new season comes lots of new talking points. Lots of way too early speculation and way too early guessing on how things will turn out. We as fans begin to base things off one or two races, which is where we start to screw predictions up massively.

Which is why I will try to take everything that happened today with a grain of salt until we reach at least The Stoneyard.

If I made predictions based off of what happened in last season’s Arris 200, which was the second race of last season mind you, for the rest of Season 5, I would’ve had Chris Barrymore and Caleb Henderson Jr. winning multiple races, Nick Orkedi winning races, and maybe I still would’ve predicted Randle Woods to win the title. Key word maybe.

While the winner of the 2nd race of the season has gone onto win the championship the last two seasons, lets pump the brakes before we crown Caleb Henderson Jr. the Season 6 champion here.

Is Caleb Henderson Jr. back In Title Form?
Caleb Henderson Jr. has had an odd first 5 seasons of his career.

From Seasons 1-3 he seemed to be ascending the ASCA heirarchy very quickly. Finishing 2nd in points in your 2nd Cup season, winning the Windows 300 in your 3rd season, things seemed to point towards Henderson Jr. becoming an Ajax Cup champion sooner than later.

Then Seasons 4-5 happened. And besides the two poles, another Windows 300 victory, and a Belltown win, these two seasons have been a disaster for Henderson Jr and the 17 team’s standards.

8th and 11th place points finishes the past two seasons have people asking, what went wrong?

What went wrong was the 17 team got complacent. They (and CJ Barrymore Racing as a whole) were too reliant on their past success. CJ Barrymore even admitted in an interview played during the race broadcast that the team was just reusing the same cars at tracks they ran well at over the past two seasons.

They were scared to think outside the box and try something different. And it cost them.

Thinking outside the box is what gave them their dominant “Plan A” car the team used from Seasons 3-5 at Computer Motor Speedway. But once teams started to figure out what the 17 team was doing (see the 11 car Michael White Racing developed last season), the team never made any adjustments or changes. They just stuck with what had been working and hoped it’d work again.

However, the team brought a new car to The Stoneyard for the Northern 200 last season.

They qualified on pole, and led the opening 73 laps before finishing 7th.

That led to CJ Barrymore ordering a total reboot of this team. Every car that Caleb Henderson Jr would drive in Season 6 would be brand new, even the backup cars. The old cars were donated to the Ford Research & Development Program, as well as Tico Bowden Motorsports.

Which brings us full circle today. Henderson Jr. and the 17 team were back on top of their game, starting 8th and driving to the front to lead the final 35 laps and bring home their first win since Belltown last season.

“What a relief. Best car I’ve driven in a while, anywhere.” A drenched Henderson Jr. said in victory lane.

“These guys put so much work in the offseason building all these new cars, and today was really the culmination of that. Feels good to be back in victory circle, now we just gotta keep it up.”

Now the question becomes for Henderson Jr and the 17 team, was this a one week fluke? Or are they FINALLY serious title contenders again?

What Is Up With Diego Orkedi?
Two weeks, two 12th place finishes for this 22 team. A 10th place spot in points currently.

Is everything ok with Diego Orkedi?

While Diego Orkedi admitted in a pre race interview he was “only 80%” after his mild concussion suffered in the Intel Shootout, I don’t think anyone saw his performance today coming.

The 29 year old two time champion qualified a surprisingly mediocre 17th, and didn’t run much better than that all day.

Orkedi did take a gamble for two tires that would’ve restarted him 5th after the second caution, but a speeding penalty on pit road nullified that risk.

This sent him to the back, where he got into an incident with Cameron Atwood on the ensuing lap 44 restart. After that, the two time champion once again stalled out in 12th for pretty much the duration of the race.

“I don’t know what the f*** the problem is,” Orkedi exclaimed in a frustrating post race interview. “I f***** hate this track, maybe that’s just it.” The 29 year old stormed off into his motorcoach after the last sentence.

So why isn’t this 22 team a top 5 team like they should be?

The problem does not seem to be that Orkedi Bros Racing as a whole is lacking speed. Nick Orkedi led a race high 37 laps and finished 3rd in this same race.

Like I said, it’s way too early to make judgments on anything at this point in the season, so speculation on this issue is a moot point.

However, if the two time champion continues to struggle at some of his best tracks such as Advocare and The Stoneyard especially coming up.....that’s when it may become time for Diego Orkedi fans to panic.

The Start of the.....Snoots Enterprises Era?
When former NFL QB Baby Snoots decided to start his very own ASCA team back in Season 1, he knew it was going to be a struggle.

Instead of hiring a big name to drive his #3 Cheerios Chevy SS, Snoots decided to take a vastly different approach to team building.

Snoots was more concerned about the long term health of his team rather than short term success. This is not something you see very often in the ASCA.

Which is why Baby Snoots made a seemingly puzzling decision to sign Josh Player to drive his Ajax Cup car from Seasons 1-3.

Why Josh Player you ask?

Player was the cheapest option by far on the Ajax Cup market. A longtime Ajax Cup journeyman, the guy was just looking for a ride once Season 1 rolled around. He’d take anything he could get.

So when Snoots was able to sign Player to a veteran’s minimum contract those three seasons, it allowed the team to focus more money on building new chassis and continuing to develop their R&D program.

While all of this was going on, the team was also in the process of developing the future of their team in the Craftsman Series.

Greg Healey and Adam Petty Jr. was who Baby Snoots believed would carry his team into ASCA prominence. And while Adam Petty Jr never really panned out to become the star everyone thought he would be, Greg Healey has become that and more.

Healey became the youngest points leader in Ajax Cup history with his third career 2nd place finish on Sunday.

“For the longest time we (Snoots Enterprises) haven’t been taken seriously.” Healey remarked in the media center after the race. “People just assume since we’ve run so bad in the past all the good we do is a fluke. But I’m glad this team and my guys are finally getting the respect we deserve.”

Last season it was Michael White Racing’s turn to rise to prominence.

This season, it may be the year of Snoots Enterprises.