CONCORD, N.C. — It doesn’t matter if it’s on dirt or pavement, if it has open wheels and requires a push truck, Bryan Gossel has probably driven it.
In addition to the 360 sprint car he pilots on the American Sprint Car Series National Tour, Gossel has also competed in 410 sprint cars with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, pavement sprint cars in both winged and non-winged configuration, as well as a Silver Crown car in 2024 alone.
But his driving career began in something a little less exhilarating: a Ford Torino.
“My stepmom would not let me drive a car until I was 16 years old,” Gossel said. “I was so determined that, when I turned 16, my dad was working nights and couldn’t go, so my 14-year-old brother and I went to the track the week I turned 16 by ourselves.
“Literally building a car outside under tarps on an open trailer, we didn’t have a garage back then.”
From that point, it was only a matter of time until Gossel made his way into the family tradition: sprint car racing. His cousin is Marlon Jones, a member of the Huset’s Speedway Hall of Fame and a force to be reckoned with across the upper Midwest throughout his three-decade career.
“Marlon Jones was my racing hero,” Gossel said. “That’s what I wanted to do, worked my way to it and I got an opportunity to drive a sprint car for a guy in 1998. I was a hired driver, and it was freaking awesome. We won the second night we were out. He helped me get going and that just made me say ‘man, this is awesome,’ and I was hooked on sprint car ssince then.”
In the years since, Gossel has raced across the nation, bouncing between nearly every open wheel oval series under the sun. For the past five seasons, his schedule has included the longest and most grueling event in all of sprint car racing: the Little 500 at Anderson Speedway.
The Memorial Day weekend tradition includes 33 cars battling it out for 500 laps around the paved quarter-mile, with a three-wide start and live pit stops only adding to the challenge.
“The Little 500, you are on kill for 500 laps, two and a half, three hours, however long it takes, because it is so short and there is always something happening,” said Gossel, who has a career-best of 11th from the 2021 edition. “Three years ago, I really committed to getting back into shape because I’m older than most doing this, getting close to 50. I’m not going to fall out of the seat and I’m going to work harder than anybody. Even if it’s just that I’m not going to physically beat them because they’re younger than me, I’m going to outwork them.”
That work ethic has benefitted Gossel in everything he drives, including dirt sprint cars. He planned to continue racing those on a pick-and-choose basis in 2024 – until one phone call got the ball rolling in a different direction.
“Wayne Johnson and I have been buddies for 20, 25 years, always talked and helped each other out here and there,” Gossel said. “He said ‘what are you doing next year?’ and I said ‘I don’t know,’ and he’s like ‘well, you should just send Austyn down here with me to Florida. I’ll help him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.’ I was like ‘OK,’ and then I was like ‘well I want to go too.”
“My wife Cendi and [son] Austyn both like the dirt a whole lot better, so I was like ‘let’s just go and see how it plays out.’ We didn’t really have a true game plan. It was kind of like [360] stuff, some 410 stuff, just kind of figured it out. And then once World Racing Group decided to take over ASCS, it was like ‘man, this has got to be a way better deal, let’s get on it, try it and see how it goes.”
Nineteen races into their season as the National Tour’s only two-car team, both Bryan and Austyn have been making steady gains as of late. Austyn scored back-to-back top 10s for the first time at Dodge City Raceway Park and Lincoln County Raceway, while Bryan finished a season-best 13th on Friday night at Big Sky Speedway.
“We found a couple things with the cars, different parts that didn’t work well with our cars,” Gossel said. “Changed those out not that many races ago, and it just made it to where the cars worked better and I felt comfortable. I realized I haven’t been comfortable in the car. Even Dan [Musselman] from Maxim was looking at it and Wayne, they were trying to help me, and they were just like ‘it just don’t look right,’ and I’m like ‘it don’t feel right.’
“So we changed out the rear arms and birdcages, and that really made the cars feel better and get back to where they were more drivable. That definitely made strides there, and then I have to retrain myself to get comfortable in the car again.”
Gossel is currently in the process of doing just that, and his performance in Billings goes to show that he is headed in the right direction.
“Last weekend was the best I’ve felt in the car and it was the most drivable,” Gossel said. “I was actually passing cars and going forward and I was like ‘wow, this is pretty cool.”