PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Zeb Wise spends most of his time on track these days aboard a winged sprint car, but he climbed back in a midget Thursday to kickoff a short stint with the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series.
The 19-year-old from Indiana earned his first two All Star Circuit of Champions victories this year with his newly formed Wise-Priddy Racing team en route to a fourth-place finish in the standings.
Prior to committing most of his racing efforts to sprint cars, Wise made a name for himself in the USAC midget ranks, primarily as one of Clauson-Marshall Racing’s drivers.
In 2018 Wise picked up his first victory with the USAC National Midget Series, becoming, at the time, the youngest winner with the historic series.
Then in 2019, he racked up three more wins, including the second edition of the BC39 before finishing fifth in points.
Since the end of 2019, Wise had only made five USAC National Midget starts before Thursday’s Hangtown 100 opener at Placerville Speedway, and the Hoosier started the night strong in the Matt Wood Racing No. 37w, but fought a little rust in the A-main.
Wise timed in second in his heat race group, trailing only NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson. He then secured enough points with a solid heat race performance to earn a spot in the feature.
The format’s invert lined Wise up fourth on the grid for the 30-lap main event, and he darted to second on the opening circuit, a position he would maintain for a majority of the race.
The lack of recent midget seat time proved challenging as the laps waned, and Wise battled some of his competition on the technical racing surface before fading to eighth at the finish.
“I think inexperience in the past year or so of me running midgets, a combination of that, and I think we lost a little bit of speed in the car,” Wise said of the late race struggles. “I felt like off of (turn) two I struggled a lot because I wanted to be in the cushion all the way around, but at the same time I couldn’t because I started tripping myself up really bad.
“Once one guy got by me, I was like, ‘Ok maybe I should try what they’re doing,’” Wise added. “And then I feel like I went down there, and someone went around me on the top. It was just a chess match from there on.”
Despite falling down the running order after holding a podium position for much of the race, Wise maintained good spirits. The result was enough to slot him in a respectable ninth in points heading into night two against the nation’s top midget drivers.
Not bad for someone who hadn’t wheeled a midget in more than three months.
“It says a lot about our team here,” Wise said of his run. “We’re four wing guys most of the time and came here and ran pretty good against the national (midget) tour and (Kyle) Larson and the rest of them. It feels good to get back in a midget and actually do well. I ran one at the BC39 earlier this year and honestly I was horrible.”
Wise will look for an even better showing this evening during the second preliminary Friday evening to position himself even better for the hefty payday on the line Saturday night.
Wise doesn’t plan on being done with the midget once the final checkered flag flies this weekend. In fact, it seems he’s trying to make up for all the missed laps in a short span during the Western swing.
“I’ll finish out here at Hangtown,” Wise said. “Then just a couple days off and then Merced for two nights and then Ventura. So, yeah, I’ll be out here for the rest of it.”