In theory, the bottom of a race track is the shortest route, but on Friday night, the top of the race track proved to be the fastest path at Brown County Speedway.

The majority of the feature winners found the high side to be their liking at the local oval.

Thomas Weisgram of Northville started on the pole position of the Late Model feature. While he ran on the bottom for a few laps, he soon decided the top was the place to race.

Weisgram trailed Dustin Arthur of St. Lawrence for a few laps before getting around him when lap traffic came into play.

“He led a couple laps early and I was kind of committed to the bottom. I was kind of hanging with him, so I was kind of riding. I knew lap traffic would be coming up on him, so the whole race was going to change,” Weisgram said. “Luckily, everything kind of worked out. We got back in the lead. I got her back up top.”

While there was a few rough spots on the high side, it was still faster than the bottom.

“It was a little hectic up there,” Weisgram said. “One and two was really rough, so I was trying to pick the right line and trying to manage lap traffic best I could, but we definitely needed to be around the top.”

Late in the race, Weisgram was forced to work his way around the track with lap cars literally all over the place.

“You’re looking a long ways ahead, trying to find what they’re doing,” Weisgram said. “You’re really watching them, trying to make sure that you hit them at the right time, so you don’t have to get on the brakes. It can get dicey for sure.”

Selby’s Dawson Zabel won the closest feature of the evening, edging Todd Stark of Watertown with a pass on the final lap to claim the Midwest Modified feature.

Zabel tried the low side of the track early in the race to move into contention, and then took advantage of lap traffic at the end to find a way past Stark, who ran the high side the entire race.

“I knew when I got to second I was faster than he was,” Zabel said. “I could gain on him pretty tough, but I knew on that track, getting around him was going to be the hardest part.”

Stark eventually encountered lap traffic on the high side and Zabel was able to get him past him on the bottom right before the checkered flag.

“He couldn’t run the top like he wanted to,” Zabel said. “I don’t know if he had run the bottom all race and I had, so that kind of helped me out there. I knew I could hit my marks on the bottom.”

The finish was so close, Zabel said he didn’t know he had won until two pace laps after the checkered flag.

“That was definitely exciting,” he said.

Zabel’s brother, Dylan, took advantage of his starting position, outside pole, to lead the Modified feature from start to finish.

“They completely reworked the top and even before that it looked like the top was going to be dominant, too,” Zabel said. “Just complete luck of the draw. My grandma could have won from the outside pole tonight.”

Zabel said the high-banked oval is always solid on the high side.

“This is a high-side track, with the amount of banking,” he said. “As heavy and hammered down as it was, that high side’s not going to be beat.”

Warner’s Trevor Nelson waited for the right moment to make his move on the way to winning the Super Stock feature. Nelson trailed Austin Arbogast of Huron for the first half of the way before making his move for a lead he never lost.

“It was pretty cool to see Austin do that,” Nelson said. “That’s my old car from like 2015, so it’s kind of cool to see that thing still going.”

Eventually, Nelson took the lead with 10 laps remaining, noticing that Arbogast left an opening he could exploit.

“The top was starting to get a little treacherous more and more every lap, and he was starting to get tight,” Nelson said. “I kind of knew where his weaknesses were and where our strengths were, and we were able to capitalize.”

Tony Smith of Jamestown, N.D., was able to use his outside pole starting position to his advantage in winning the Street Stock feature. He decided to run the high side of the oval and it turned out to be a wise decision.

“I gambled on it,” said Smith, who won his first feature in the Street Stock division.

Despite not trailing, Smith had to fend off a hard charge from Maria Broksieck of Goodwin to hang on for the win.

“I think when she showed me a nose, I ran just a little bit harder,” Smith said.

He said Broksieck’s hard charge made him stick with his choice to run the high side.

“That’s why I decided to stay up in the traction all the way down the straightaway there,” Smith said.

The only driver on the night that found the bottom to be the best path was Dustin Mund of Lisbon, N.D., en route to winning the Legends Feature.

“I knew the bottom was going to be in and I just protected the bottom,” Mund said. “I wanted to try the top, but when you’re leading it, you just don’t know what to do.”

Racing continues at 7 p.m. Friday with the lone appearance of sprint cars this season.

To see complete results, click on the following link:

https://www.myracepass.com/events/625758/races