From T.J. Buffenbarger
AUBURN, Mi. (August 25, 2023) — Zeb Wise took to Tri-City Motor Speedway like a duck to water in route to winning the feature event Friday night with the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1. Wise was one position away in a heat race from having a perfect night after being the fastest qualifier and winning the dash. The win was Wise’s seventh of the 2023 season with the Rudeen Racing team.
Wise had a great feeling about Tri-City as soon as he got his first glimpse of the race track in person.
““When we rolled in I kind of thought it looked like a mini-Attica, and I love Attica,” said Wise. “I’ve always had a lot of success there. I don’t know what it was about this place. I think it just kind of fit my driving style. It’s small and high banked and it really wasn’t that slick until the features so I knew once I got slick, it would fit my driving style even more than it already had. It was an awesome racetrack. I had never been here before. I honestly had never even heard of it, so to come here and say quick time and have a great run really throughout the whole night, win the dash and win the feature, I’m just really proud of our team.”
Wise took the lead from the onset of the 30-lap main event, pulling away during multiple restarts. During the second half of the feature both Kraig Kinser and Kerry Madsen was able to close in while going through slower traffic, but Wise as up for the challenge.
One thing that did help the leaders in slower traffic was a majority of cars using the lower lane while Wise and others drove on the top side of the race course.
“I think everyone was pretty much on the bottom” Wise said of the lapped cars. ” I kind of figured that was gonna be the place to be towards the end of the race. In three and four, I felt way better down there. So yeah, just there. At the end, I knew Kerry (Madsen) was coming. I looked over the board before last restart and saw his number in second. I knew he had to be doing something different and I knew he’d be there. I kind of saw his nose once and picked up my pace through traffic and just try to pick through there as good as I could.”
Madsen finished second with Kinser moving up from 11th starting spot to round out the podium. 7th starting Chris Windom and 13th starting Bill Balog rounded out the top five.
Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1
Tri-City Motor Speedway
Auburn, Michigan
Friday, August 25, 2023
Hercules Tire Qualifying
1. 26-Zeb Wise, 10.332[8]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 10.410[12]
3. 23-Cale Thomas, 10.477[17]
4. 42-Sye Lynch, 10.479[23]
5. 45-Kyle Reinhardt, 10.523[24]
6. 28M-Conner Morrell, 10.526[6]
7. 24D-Danny Sams III, 10.592[7]
8. 55-Kerry Madsen, 10.603[15]
9. 7N-Darin Naida, 10.624[26]
10. 70-Kraig Kinser, 10.639[2]
11. 85-Dustin Daggett, 10.641[1]
12. 4-Chris Windom, 10.659[11]
13. 32-Bryce Lucius, 10.659[13]
14. 17B-Bill Balog, 10.659[19]
15. 16C-Tylar Rankin, 10.665[21]
16. 71H-Max Stambaugh, 10.666[14]
17. 77-Geoff Dodge, 10.680[4]
18. 15K-Creed Kemenah, 10.720[30]
19. W20-Greg Wilson, 10.730[25]
20. 50YR-JJ Hickle, 10.743[18]
21. 97-Zeth Sabo, 10.770[5]
22. 73-Scotty Thiel, 10.770[9]
23. 5E-Bobby Elliott, 10.785[28]
24. 22M-Dan McCarron, 10.789[16]
25. 5-Byron Reed, 10.818[29]
26. 3V-Chris Verda, 10.850[20]
27. 12-Corbin Gurley, 10.887[3]
28. 29-Adam Kekich, 10.915[27]
29. 41-Thomas Schinderle, 11.044[10]
30. 4T-Josh Turner, 11.264[22]
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 24D-Danny Sams III[2]
2. 26-Zeb Wise[4]
3. 42-Sye Lynch[1]
4. 70-Kraig Kinser[3]
5. 17B-Bill Balog[5]
6. W20-Greg Wilson[7]
7. 71H-Max Stambaugh[6]
8. 5-Byron Reed[9]
9. 97-Zeth Sabo[8]
10. 29-Adam Kekich[10]
CSI Shocks Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]
2. 55-Kerry Madsen[2]
3. 45-Kyle Reinhardt[1]
4. 32-Bryce Lucius[5]
5. 50YR-JJ Hickle[7]
6. 77-Geoff Dodge[6]
7. 85-Dustin Daggett[3]
8. 41-Thomas Schinderle[10]
9. 3V-Chris Verda[9]
10. 5E-Bobby Elliott[8]
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 28M-Conner Morrell[1]
2. 4-Chris Windom[3]
3. 7N-Darin Naida[2]
4. 23-Cale Thomas[4]
5. 16C-Tylar Rankin[5]
6. 22M-Dan McCarron[8]
7. 73-Scotty Thiel[7]
8. 12-Corbin Gurley[9]
9. 15K-Creed Kemenah[6]
10. 4T-Josh Turner[10]
Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash (6 Laps)
1. 26-Zeb Wise[1]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]
3. 23-Cale Thomas[3]
4. 28M-Conner Morrell[5]
5. 24D-Danny Sams III[4]
Classic Ink USA B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 85-Dustin Daggett[1]
2. 73-Scotty Thiel[3]
3. 5-Byron Reed[4]
4. 71H-Max Stambaugh[2]
5. 97-Zeth Sabo[8]
6. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]
7. 29-Adam Kekich[11]
8. 15K-Creed Kemenah[7]
9. 41-Thomas Schinderle[6]
10. 4T-Josh Turner[12]
11. 3V-Chris Verda[9]
DNS: 5E-Bobby Elliott
Tezos A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 26-Zeb Wise[1]
2. 55-Kerry Madsen[6]
3. 70-Kraig Kinser[11]
4. 4-Chris Windom[7]
5. 17B-Bill Balog[13]
6. W20-Greg Wilson[17]
7. 28M-Conner Morrell[4]
8. 32-Bryce Lucius[12]
9. 42-Sye Lynch[8]
10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[2]
11. 7N-Darin Naida[10]
12. 73-Scotty Thiel[20]
13. 22M-Dan McCarron[18]
14. 23-Cale Thomas[3]
15. 97-Zeth Sabo[23]
16. 50YR-JJ Hickle[15]
17. 45-Kyle Reinhardt[9]
18. 24D-Danny Sams III[5]
19. 85-Dustin Daggett[19]
20. 16C-Tylar Rankin[14]
21. 5-Byron Reed[21]
22. 12-Corbin Gurley[24]
23. 29-Adam Kekich[25]
24. 71H-Max Stambaugh[22]
25. 77-Geoff Dodge[16]