Zeb Wise won an emotional tribute race Thursday night at the dirt track in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield, beating out plenty of talented dirt racers — some of whom are NASCAR drivers.
Wise, just 16 years old, held off a late charge by both Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell — who would bring out cautions following separate on-track incidents with less than 10 laps to go — to win the second annual 39-lap Driven2SaveLives BC39. The race honors Bryan Clauson, a versatile and talented driver who died in August 2016.
Clauson drove the No. 39 throughout his career, and that’s the exact car Wise drove to victory for Clauson-Marshall Racing. In fact, Clauson-Marshall Racing swept the podium and finished 1-2-3, with Tyler Courtney and Chad Boat finishing second and third.
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Larson, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, entered the race on the heels of a thrilling win in the final race of Wednesday’s opening act. He was running second to Wise on Thursday with 10 laps to go, made a bold move for the lead and created contact that resulted in a flat tire for Larson. He finished ninth.
Moments later, Bell — who has six wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year with Joe Gibbs Racing — hopped the cushion in Turn 3 and nearly flipped to bring out the caution. He was running third at the time and slipped to a 15th-place finish.
In addition to Larson and Bell, full-time NASCAR national series drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe qualified for the main event. Stenhouse Jr. finished seventh place driving the No. 17, and Briscoe was 24th.
In an interesting NASCAR twist, Dillon Welch, who grew up racing and currently covers motorsports for MRN and NBC, turned heads by advancing to the A-Main. He finished 11th.
NASCAR weekend officially kicks off in Indianapolis on Friday with opening NASCAR Xfinity Series practice at 2:05 p.m. ET (NBCSN).