In 2003, Jimmy Henderson was a 20-year-old kid from Georgia looking for his break in stock cars. After spending the last few years in the Southern All Stars, he moved up to the ARCA Re/Max Series and things looked solid as he strung back-to-back top tens at Lowe’s and Michigan for his family-owned car.

Unfortunately, everything literally went sideways for him from there. Just three laps into the ARCA Pennsylvania 200 at Pocono Raceway, contact with Jason Jarrett got him loose and sent him into the outside wall; the ensuing impact launched his car airborne and spinning down the track, scattering debris everywhere. He was brought to the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center for further evaluation and released soon after.

Later that year, he tried to crack the Busch Series to little success. He failed to qualify at Richmond and Dover before finally making the field at Memphis Motorsports Park. Alas, his debut in NASCAR’s second division was a disaster as he spun twice. Henderson avoided the wall the first time on Lap 59, but wasn’t so lucky on Lap 101.

“This time, he didn’t keep it out the wall,” TNT color commentator Wally Dallenbach Jr. said over the broadcast before sighing, “Okay, what’s the record now? I knew you were just waiting for me to ask you.”

“We got a little bit to get to, but we’re working on it very strong,” responded play-by-play announcer Allen Bestwick. The crash that ended Henderson’s race was the seventh of nine cautions that day.

To add insult to injury, he was out-qualified for the Busch race at his home track Atlanta the week after.

13 months after that Pocono day, another massive ARCA crash. This time, the Waste Management 200 at Nashville Superspeedway turned Henderson’s car into waste when he came down on Sam Hafertepe without realizing he wasn’t clear and got clipped. Henderson went around and into the SAFER barrier before being hit by Brandon Knupp, who couldn’t avoid the wreck in time and helplessly spun into him. A trip to Vanderbilt University Medical Center followed.

While he wasn’t in serious danger after either ARCA accident, they were enough for him to be urged into calling it quits on his stock car career. His final entry was a DNQ at Lowe’s later in 2004. Six career ARCA starts in eight tries with a best finish of seventh at Michigan, and a single Busch Series start in five attempts. Obviously not the most flattering résumé, especially for someone whose NASCAR aspirations were gone at just 21 years of age.

After five years away from the sport, he briefly got back behind the wheel in legends cars and Super Late Models and appeared to be back to form, but chose to hang up his helmet again to focus on his family business. Still, the itch persisted at times, which he scratched by doing UTV racing at Durhamtown Off Road Resort.

Eventually, he got an opportunity to visit Crandon International Raceway. As the Pro 4 trucks went out for practice, it was love at first sight. He linked up with Johnny Greaves and made his Championship Off-Road debut in 2020.

“Crandon is literally what started my career in off-road,” Henderson recalled. “I came here, stood on those fences right over there [gestures at Turn 1] seven years ago. I was like, ‘I cannot believe what I’m seeing.’ We got a Pro 4, so here we are.”

Six years later, the Georgia boy who grew up on asphalt is on top of the short course world as the 2026 Red Bull World Cup champion. Who would’ve thought catching air and getting sideways in a Pro 4 truck is a lot more favorable than in a stock car?

Henderson arrived in Crandon as the Pro 4 points leader, and the weekend began on a strong note when he won the points-paying race on Saturday. Unfortunately, the World Championship race the day after was plaged by a differential failure. His team spent the rest of the day getting it fixed in time for the World Cup.

As the Pro 2 trucks took off from the Walker Evans Land Rush, Henderson and his classmates waited 47 seconds before following suit. Cole Mamer took the holeshot as a Pro 2 driver, having made the switch because his Pro 4’s front differential and serpentine belt got destroyed in Saturday’s race.

CJ Greaves, who won earlier on Sunday, was the first Pro 4 into Turn 1. While he’s a five-time World Cup champ who’s won the COR Pro 4 title every year but the inaugural in 2020, his lead only lasted a lap before Henderson passed him on the inside. Now in front, Henderson began chasing down the Pro 2s while Mamer tried to stave off Sunday Pro 2 World Championship winner Keegan Kincaid, Jacob Rosales, and John Holtger.

The Pro 4s started catching their 2WD counterparts by Lap 3, while Kincaid was busy holding Rosales back. Come Lap 5 of 10, Henderson was running ninth and climbing with Greaves too far back to pose any threat.

Kincaid continued to lead with a good gap on Rosales and Ryan Beat, but the margin between the 2023 World Cup victor and Henderson was rapidly sinking. Beat, Holtger, and Rosales became occupied fighting for second, during which Henderson caught up to them in the dust before picking the trio off in just two corners.

Henderson closed the margin on Kincaid before making his move at the end of Lap 7. With Henderson easily pulling away and his maiden World Cup all but secured, Kincaid’s new goal became to protect second from a charging Greaves. Unfortunately, he lost out to another Pro 4 as Greaves easily cleared him on the last lap. Kincaid remarked after the fact that “it turned into a Pro 4 track real quick.”

The margin of victory between Henderson and Greaves was a comfortable 7.774 seconds.

“It’s surreal. I don’t even believe it yet,” Henderson stated. “We were just in the truck running laps and the white flag came out and I was like, ‘Hey, was Keegan in the lead?’ You just don’t know in those Cup races, they’re wild.”

All the more sweeter was doing so in a chrome-bodied truck as a tribute to the late Kyle LeDuc, the two-time World Cup champion who passed away in 2023. LeDuc’s #99 was also on the rear quarter panel of Henderson’s #44. Henderson stated about the tribute, “I’m proud to be able to honor Kyle in a way that he deserves and probably even more.”

The World Cup is not a points race, but his double victories over the weekend give Henderson plenty of momentum going into October’s season finale at Glen Helen. He currently leads the Pro 4 standings by nine points on Greaves, and winning the title would fittingly make him and LeDuc the only other Pro 4 champions in COR history besides Greaves.

Greaves’ father Johnny scored a top-five finish in his final World Cup as a full-time driver. Ken Roczen, who won the AMA Supercross Championship earlier in 2026 and had tried short course for the first time at Glen Helen last year, was ninth in his World Cup debut.

Defending World Cup winner RJ Anderson had a tough weekend, starting with a flat right-rear tire on Saturday and ending with a DNF on Sunday.

Despite contending for the lead early, Beat fell out of the top ten in the end and settled for 15th. While Beat never raced NASCAR like Henderson, he wrapped his Pro 2 in a livery based on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s #8 Budweiser car from the 2000s. Earnhardt’s nephew Wyatt Miller, who drives a Pro Spec for Ryan Beat Motorsports, showed up to Crandon with a throwback scheme modeled after his grandfather Dale Sr.’s #3 American flag scheme that he raced in the 1996 The Winston Select. Unfortunately for Miller, he was plagued by several engine, brake, and transmission issues on Saturday then had a flat tire on Sunday.

Loren Healy and Paul Wolff respectively swept their classes in the two Ultra4 races. Blake WIlkey couldn’t do the same in Class 11 as Kyle Zirkus narrowly beat him on Friday, but still went two-for-three including the World Championship on Sunday.

Dylan Parsons led flag to flag and held off Avery Hemmer to win the Pro Spec vs. Pro Buggy race, a clash between the two categories he’s primarily competed in across his career. He also took part in the Van Prix, squaring off against the likes of creator Jim York and TORC alumnus-turned-Olympic gold medalist Nick Baumgartner until his van caught fire.

The Van Prix ended under a red flag when York flipped onto his side and the remainder couldn’t be completed due to tight scheduling with Class 11 coming up. Since nobody apparently kept track of the running order, York was named the winner on style points—not an actual metric, for the record—by way of his rollover.

“I 100% did not decide (the winner). That’s why it’s always awkward (for me) to win my race,” York clarified. “When you create it, you also know what it takes. I’m for Best of Show. I’m here for a show, I’m here for a good time. We saw a corner, said, ‘I wonder what it’s like to see this thing upside-down?’ But these guys put on a hell of a show, racing for first place, and that’s what it’s all about.

“We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”

Red Bull World Cup results

Finish	Number	Driver	Class	Laps
1	44	Jimmy Henderson	Pro 4	10
2	33	CJ Greaves	Pro 4	10
3	1	Keegan Kincaid	Pro 2	10
4	44	John Holtger	Pro 2	10
5	22	Johnny Greaves	Pro 4	10
6	31	Jacob Rosales	Pro 2	10
7	35	Cole Mamer	Pro 2	10
8	90	Zac Zakowski	Pro 2	10
9	94	Ken Roczen	Pro 2	10
10	58	Mikey Lawrence	Pro 2	10
11	91	Kyle Chaney	Pro 4	10
12	12	Myan Spaccarelli	Pro 2	10
13	15	Andrew Carlson	Pro 4	10
14	98	Patrick Denis	Pro 2	10
15	51	Ryan Beat	Pro 2	8
16	7	Justin Ward	Pro 2	6
17	88	Mickey Thomas	Pro 4	5
18	11	Adrian Cenni	Pro 4	1
19	37	RJ Anderson	Pro 4	1
20	78	Ricky Gutierrez	Pro 2	0
21	24	Aaron Holiday	Pro 2	0

Class winners

Pro

Class	Saturday	Sunday*
Pro 4	Jimmy Henderson	CJ Greaves
Pro 2	Ricky Gutierrez	Keegan Kincaid
Pro Lite	Connor Barry	Connor Barry
Pro Spec	Nick Visser	Nick Visser
Pro Buggy	Tony Keepers	Jordan Bernloehr
Pro SxS	CJ Greaves	Jeb Bootle
Pro Stock SxS	Brody Sands	Brody Sands

Sportsman

Class	Friday	Saturday
Pro Am SxS	Kyle Sharkey	Kyle Sharkey
Pro Am Turbo SxS	Blake Enloe	Ty Lueckemeyer
Super Stock Truck	Ronald Kosciesza	Matt Pyburn
Stock Truck	Dustin Rogaczewski	Kyle Ambroziak
Sportsman SxS	Ryder Greco	Ryder Greco
1600 Single Buggy	Connor Schulz	Connor Schulz
1600 Light Buggy	Wesley Vande Voort	Aiden Wandahsega
Mod Kart	Lincoln Mandsager	Lincoln Mandsager
Short Course Kart	Roman Tullberg	Quinton Mocco
Youth SxS	Jack Smith	William Holtger
570 SxS	William Holtger	Miles Pakenham
200 SxS	Gaborik Geyen	Gavin Pence
170 SxS	Jersey Kleikamp	Rhett White

Other

Class	Winner
Class 11	Kyle Zirkus (Friday) Blake Wilkey (Saturday) Blake Wilkey (Sunday)
Pro Spec vs. Pro Buggy	Dylan Parsons
Ultra4 4900	Paul Wolff (Friday) Paul Wolff (Saturday)
Ultra4 4400	Loren Healy (Friday) Loren Healy (Saturday)
Van Prix	Jim York

Featured image credit: Speed, Crandon International Raceway