Zeb Wise “Parks It” At The BC39

Zeb Wise on his way to winning the BC39. [Photo by: Joe Skibinski]

By Dan Margetta

Speedway, Ind., Sept. 5—The late Bryan Clausen commonly used the phrase “parked it” from victory lane following his many wins and Thursday night following the DrivenToSaveLives BC39 driven by NOS Energy Drink held in his honor at the Dirt Track at IMS, young Zeb Wise continued that tradition by leading a Clausen-Marshall Racing podium sweep of the top three positions.

It wasn’t easy for Wise, who first took the lead from early pace setter Thomas Meseraull following a lap 19 restart, and then had to fend off serious challenges from Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell before edging teammates Tyler Courtney and Chris Windom for the victory. Larson posed the most serious threat as he threw a slider on Wise entering turn three on lap 29 and as the two exited turn four, their cars came together sending Wise ramping up the wall before landing on all four wheels as Brady Bacon snuck by on the inside to grab the lead. Larson slowed following the contact to draw a caution flag which dropped him from contention for the win although he would race back to a ninth place finish. Driving with some concern from the contact with Larson, Wise was able to throw a slider of his own on Bacon to regain the lead on lap 33 just before Bacon and his teammate Jason McDougal tangled on the frontstretch to draw another caution on lap 35. This time as racing resumed, it was Bell’s turn to challenge Wise and his turn three slide job attempt at the lead on lap 37 ended with his car rolling over in turn four before landing back on its wheels, setting up a three lap battle for the win between the Clausen-Marshall contingent of Wise, Windom, and Courtney. Wise was up on the wheel for the restart and he maintained the lead over the final laps while Courtney was able to edge Windom at the line for second place. Chad Boat and Logan Seavey finished fourth and fifth respectively while Jesse Colwell raced his way from the 24th starting position to finish sixth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished seventh followed by Kevin Thomas Jr. in eighth while Kyle Larson and Justin Grant rounded out the top ten finishers.

“I’m at a loss for words right now,” Wise exclaimed after climbing out of his USAC National Midget in victory lane, “Me and Larson got together and it’s unfortunate because we would have had a heck of a battle there but after that I actually had a bent steering arm and I had to man-handle that thing around the top. What a cool moment for not only me and the 39BC but for the Clausen-Marshall team with the podium, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

A total of 85 cars were entered into the main event second night of the BC39 program and they were placed into six qualifying races which were won by Tyler Thomas, Zeb Wise, Christopher Bell, Dillon Welch, Gio Scelzi, and Michael Pickens. The driver were then placed into races based on a passing points formula in which the top sixteen were locked into the BC39 with the rest having to advanced through a series of “Alphabet Soup” races. Jonathan Beason and Brent Beauchamp were the winners of the two D Mains while Sam Johnson won the C Main. Christopher Bell topped the B Main as he advanced to the BC39 along with Tucker Klaasmeyer, Jerry Coons Jr., Tyler Courtney, Chase Briscoe, and Cannon McIntosh who rounded out the top six finishers.

Dan Margetta

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