TALLADEGA – The decision to stay out of the “eye of the storm” and try to avoid the “Big One” at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway paid off for Josh Wise and his No. 98 team in Sunday’s GEICO 500.
Wise in the No. 98 Phoenix Construction Ford Fusion showed that despite their 34th place qualifying effort on Saturday, they had speed in their race car. When the first caution waved on Lap 20 for an accident in Turn 1 between Brian Scott and Michael Waltrip, Wise joined a number of teams who elected to stay out placing him sixth.
Back under racing conditions, Wise settled back into his safe zone and missed the “Big One” on Lap 48 which involved 15 cars. Steadily from there the Riverside, California native made his march forward.
By Lap 80 Wise climbed to 20th, 10 laps later he entered the top-15. Mixed in the shuffle of restrictor plate racing, Wise would dance from mid pack to the back, but as the race drew near its
conclusion, Wise attacked.
Restarting 29th just after the final caution, Wise threaded the needle, found draft partners and climbed back inside the top-15 on Lap 160. With eight laps to go, Wise sat 18th, but as the field scattered on the last lap with two separate incidents in Turn 1 and the backstretch, Wise emerged unscathed and delivered his first top-10 in Sprint Cup Series competition.
In 113 races, Wise scored just his third top-20 finish of his career, all coming at Talladega’s 2.66-mile superspeedway. Wise finished 20th at Talladega in this same race last year in a race sponsored by the Dogecoin community.
Motorsport.com reported this week of a rumored sale of Phil Parsons Racing to fellow owner Jay Robinson this week – leaving the direction of the team currently unknown. Hopefully, Wise remains in the seat, because many believe this athletic driver is still one of the underrated in the garage.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
