Wise on the Rise, Looking for Best Finish of ’13

Josh Wise is still relatively new to the Sprint Cup circuit, having just 42 races under his belt. But he’s raced enough at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway to feel comfortable on the three-quarter-mile oval and looks forward to this weekend’s 300-miler.

 

Wise and his No. 35 MDS Transport Ford team are coming off a 26th-place finish at Kansas Speedway, equaling their best finish of the year and best of Wise’s young Cup career. He’ll look to top that result Saturday night at Richmond, when the Sprint Cup cars go racing under the lights at the always-fast short track.

 

Saturday night’s race will be Wise’s third Sprint Cup start at Richmond. He also has seven Nationwide Series starts to his credit at the track, including a top-10 finish.

 

Comments from MDS Transport team driver Josh Wise heading to Richmond:

 

“Richmond is always fun, for sure. It’s one of my favorite tracks and one of the coolest tracks on the circuit we go to. And night racing is always exciting. I’m pretty eager to get there. I got to run there a couple times last year and I’ve run a few Nationwide races there. I feel like it’s a track that I feel really comfortable going to, so it’s good for me.

 

“It’s a short track but it’s wide, and even though the bottom lane will be the dominant lane, you can get the higher lanes working and run side by side and things like that. There’s a lot of tire management. I think everybody likes when the tires wear and fall off and you fight forward drive and things like that there, so it’s a great place to go.

 

“I’m proud of our No. 35 team for our race last week at Kansas. We finished 26th, which equaled our best finish of the season, and best of my Cup career, and shows that we are making progress. We’re still a really young team. A lot of these teams in the garage have been working together for years and years, with a lot of the same core people over all those years. We’re still pretty young as a group, but I like the progress we’re making and the things we’re learning and I think it’s really starting to show on track.”

 

FRM PR