Kaylee Bryson earned her stripes in grassroots open-wheel racing as the first woman to crack the A-main lineup at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in 2022 and the first to win a USAC national race in a Silver Crown feature a year later.
More recently Bryson added road racing to her repertoire, competing in Trans Am. She won the 2024 title in the tiny SGT class and races mostly against lap records and her own history while learning the ups and downs and rights and lefts of a new discipline.
Now the 24-year from Muskogee, Oklahoma, is set for her national stock car debut.
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Bryson, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of 2021 NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, is set to race the Cook Racing Technologies No. 17 Chevrolet on Aug. 22 at Madison International Speedway in the Town of Rutland. The ARCA Menards Series Badger 200 is scheduled for an 8:10 p.m. start.
In the lead-up, Bryson spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about her unconventional path in racing, the role social media figured into securing the deal for Madison and plays in building her brand, and her long-term goals.
Here are highlights.
Question: There’s been some anticipation for people wanting to see you get your first national stock car start. Is it a big deal for you?
Answer: I’ve wanted to do it for a long time. To finally get the opportunity, and especially at a place that I’ve already been to – I’ve already been to Madison in a Silver Crown car (in 2023) – it’s somewhere that I’m actually familiar with, which is really cool.
How long was it in the making?
I would say my career started getting pretty serious about 2020, and there’s always been talks of it. Obviously money has a big role in it, because you have to have sponsorship to be able to do it. … I’ve just been trying to build my name a little bit, get my name out there a little bit, and hopefully sponsors and the opportunities will come.
Specifically this race, Madison, had this been in the works for a long time?
Bruce (Cook, longtime crew chief and team owner) messaged me on Facebook, and then we got (each other’s phone) numbers probably the beginning of the year actually. Teaming up with Bruce was really cool, just because he’s such a genuine and laidback person, it honestly feels like a bit more of a family, we all have fun doing it at the same time.
You mentioned being to Madison, but that was in a Silver Crown car. How meaningful is that experience?
Especially when you’re jumping in a car that you’ve never really driven in the next series and everything’s new, it’s nice to have something somewhat familiar. So just to go to a track that you know, you know where to park, you know how to get in, it just takes a lot of stress off your shoulders. You know the characteristics of the track, where the bumps are, how hard it is to brake there. Just knowing that puts you a little bit ahead of the game, just gives you a little bit more of a comfort level.
You got the ARCA West start (July 11 at Sonoma Raceway). What did you learn from that?
We had issues, and that’s part of racing. We had some electrical failures. But at the same time it really worked out perfect, best-case scenario for us just because I got to run the car and get really comfortable with the car I’ve got. I’d never been to Sonoma, so that was an eye opener for me, just learning the track. And basically that day was just a lot of learning … just getting in the car for the first time, driving an ARCA car for the first time. We looked at it like a full day of testing with other cars on the track at the same time. Really just a comfort-level type of day for us.
This sort of mix of road racing and open-wheel oval racing the past couple years, how did you get on this multi-pronged path?
It’s definitely different than most people. I grew up racing on dirt. We always said asphalt was for getting to the racetrack. So I wasn’t really sure if I’d ever really go pavement racing, but I got the opportunity to do a little bit of late model stuff and won my first ever race on pavement. … So opportunities started falling in. And I learned from a young age, the more you win and you do in racing, the more opportunities you’ll get.
I went racing (midgets) with Keith Kunz Motorsports and got to do a whole lot of dirt stuff, and kind of built my name up a little bit, and got to do some pavement late model stuff. Then the door opened up to go do Silver Crown racing (with Sam Pierce Racing), which is dirt and pavement, which is really fun. From there, we got a Trans Am ride (with LSI Racing) and started doing road courses, which was totally new for me but I absolutely loved it. I never thought I’d love pavement racing, but it’s been a blast.
Trans Am is not necessarily thought of as a steppingstone series, and it’s hard to measure success or progress because of the fields and classes. What have you gained the most from that type of racing?
There’s a lot more that goes into it than just a two-corner dirt track or pavement track. You have to put a lot more effort and a lot more mental focus into what you’re doing. A Corvette, it’s got 750 horsepower, and driving a car like that, and pushing it to the limits, and keeping a car underneath you, and saving the tires … I’ve never done an hourlong race. Chasing lap times and trying to beat track records has taught me a lot.
It teaches you the car control and to be a better driver and you learn your limits. That’s a pretty cool aspect, which you wouldn’t be able to learn on the dirt side of things.
After Madison in the stock car, what’s next?
I want to get my foot in the door a little bit more with the NASCAR world (so) I want to make some more starts after Madison. Not sure what track we would be able to hit, and a lot of it depends on sponsorship and how well we do.
After Madison, we’ve got hopefully some more sprint car races. I like the winged sprint car stuff. Got Chili Bowl coming up and got some Trans Am races we’re going to yet. We’re kind of all over the map.
Building a brand is something that’s become important. Where does (your ability) come from?
I started racing at a young age, and racing was just for fun. I did it for fun. I loved it. I loved winning. And then I tried to move up, and I realized you can’t really move up without money. You need money for sponsorship, or you have rides to be able to do it. I’m like, well, how do I get recognized enough where people want me to be in their car or sponsors want to have their name on the side of my car?
So I started getting into social media a little bit, and at first I really didn’t like it. It’s tough to try and put everything that you’re doing on social media. It wasn’t really my favorite thing, but I started doing it a bit more, even posted videos of me driving, where people would want me in their car and maybe like what they see. And so I started doing that a bit more and a bit more, and then getting rides was a little bit easier. And then getting sponsorship was a little bit easier.
Then I started to actually enjoy doing the social media side of things and promoting myself, which is weird to say, but promoting yourself to try and get to the next level is really fun.
Big picture question: What do you want to do ultimately? Where do you want to get and why?
I love racing. I really like what Kyle Larson is doing right now, and (Christoper Bell) too. Now that I’m getting a little bit older and I’ve got to do so much different types of racing – I’ve done dirt racing, I’ve done road racing – I really loved being diversified and being able to jump in a sprint car one weekend and then go road racing the next. So if I could just do that, like say I’m in NASCAR at one of the top levels and go High Limit Racing (sprint car racing) on the weekends I’m not racing NASCAR, I think that would be an ultimate goal for me.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: One more twist in an unconventional racing career brings Kaylee Bryson to Madison for ARCA | Q&A
