PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Zeb Wise is continuing along a path to sprint car stardom.
Only a few weeks ago, the Angola, Ind., native finalized his first All-Star Circuit of Champions title. But even with 13 All Star wins and a championship under his belt, a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink sprint car win had eluded him.
Until Saturday night.
Entering the World of Outlaws vs. PA Posse battle as an Indiana invader, Wise earned the pole for the 30-lap feature at Port Royal Speedway. The 20-year-old slipped to second early before rallying to move by a Pennsylvania legend and held off one of his closest friends to make his first trip to victory lane with The Greatest Show on Dirt and pocket $15,000.
As with any first time World of Outlaws winner, emotion spilled over after the checkered flag. In only his 23rd career feature start with the Series, Wise drove the Rudeen Racing No. 26 to his first win.
And not only did Wise collect his first victory, he also brought Kevin Rudeen’s team their first series triumph since 2011, 4,418 days ago, when Sam Hafertepe Jr. topped a World of Outlaws visit to Skagit Speedway.
“It’s been a long road,” Wise said. “I remember my first few Outlaw races. One of them was actually here, and I had no clue what I was doing. I was definitely out in left field. And coming back here as many times as I’ve been here, I’ve gotten really comfortable here. And this is always a place I love coming to but always seemed to struggle at… Last night we didn’t really have a good showing. We came back and were really strong out of the gate, so I’m just very proud of our team.”
After winning the Toyota Racing Dash, Wise started the main event on the pole, but it was Lance Dewease rolling by Wise on the bottom to lead the first lap.
After Dewease grabbed the top spot, the Fayetteville, Pa., native established a solid gap between himself and Wise in the early going, and the margin stabilized around one second. As Dewease rolled the bottom and middle aboard the Macri Motorsports No. 39m, the distance between the two stayed roughly the same through much of the first half of the race. It was just before the halfway mark when Wise began to flex his muscle.
Wise started to build momentum by ripping the cushion through Turns 1 and 2 to create a massive run down the back straightaway. On the 16th lap, that line allowed Wise to close on Dewease’s tail tank. Three laps later, Wise used the high side to blast by Dewease exiting turn two.
“I knew Lance wasn’t going to go to the top in (turns) one and two, but he was just high enough on entry where it was really hard for me to get into the corner good enough to clear him off of (turn) two. I got close multiple times and just didn’t want to show my nose too early and put us in a bad spot for later. So, I kind of took my time, and I knew we had a really fast race car. Even right after lap one when I was in second, I figured we’d have a shot at it for sure.”
Wise might’ve had the lead with only 10 laps to go, but the race was far from over. Dewease surged back to his inside over the next couple laps in a bid to regain the lead. And when those efforts came up short, a new challenger arose.
All the way from the 10th starting spot, Tyler Courtney passed Dewease on the 25th circuit. Wise had to fend off Courtney to secure an All-Star title with Rudeen Racing, and he’d be forced to hold off the same driver with his first World of Outlaws win on the line.
Courtney began to close in aboard the Clauson Marshall Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 7bc, trimming Wise’s lead from a second nearly down to half a second in two laps. But with two laps to go, Wise pieced together a strong enough trip around the half mile to pull slightly ahead and make for a comfortable final lap as he locked up a win he’ll never forget with his close friend following him to the line.
“It’s really cool,” Wise said. “Me and Tyler have an awesome relationship. Obviously, we were teammates a handful of years back. It makes it even more special to be able to battle toe to toe like this it seems like every night. He was way ahead of us last night. But tonight I looked up and saw he was in third of fourth on one of those restarts and figured he was going to be coming. It’s really cool for us to be able to go head-to-head like this and have fun.”
Courtney came home second, narrowly missing a weekend sweep after his Friday victory.
“Every time I’d get to him with my wing that far back I would kind of just lose my nose just a little bit right at the entry of the corner just kind of slip by grip a little bit,” Courtney said. “I tried the middle there coming to the checkered, and I should’ve moved up there about five laps before that. But I had made all my ground there on the bottom and felt like if I could hit my marks I was better than him down there, but it wasn’t meant to be tonight. It’s cool to see him win. He’s had a hell of a year. I know how special those first ones are.”
And rounding out the top three was Shark Racing’s Logan Schuchart as he led the way for the World of Outlaws regulars.
“We just slowly but surely moved the wing back and were able to run through the middle,” Schuchart said. “It wasn’t like you could just pound the fence or anything, so I don’t know what the cars were doing behind me or even the cars up front. I just felt like I had to pull the wing back, float through the middle, and just work on each car that was in front of us lap by lap. Slowly, we just kind of picked them off.”
David Gravel and Lance Dewease completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 26-Zeb Wise[1]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[10]; 3. 1S-Logan Schuchart[8]; 4. 2-David Gravel[9]; 5. 39M-Lance Dewease[2]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[5]; 7. 24-Rico Abreu[15]; 8. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 9. 1T-Tanner Holmes[16]; 10. 19-Brent Marks[11]; 11. 49-Brad Sweet[3]; 12. 21-Brian Brown[6]; 13. 45-Jeff Halligan[14]; 14. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[18]; 15. 23-Devon Borden[7]; 16. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[19]; 17. 9P-Parker Price Miller[17]; 18. 11T-TJ Stutts[25]; 19. 5-Spencer Bayston[13]; 20. 20G-Noah Gass[26]; 21. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[23]; 22. (DNF) 48-Danny Dietrich[21]; 23. (DNF) 47K-Kody Lehman[27]; 24. (DNF) 13-Justin Peck[12]; 25. (DNF) 1-Hunter Schuerenberg[20]; 26. (DNF) 15-Donny Schatz[22]; 27. (DNF) 83JR-Michael Kofoid[24]