TULSA, Okla. — After finishing sixth in her preliminary B main on Friday night, Kaylee Bryson was revved up for a run through the famed alphabet soup at the 38th annual Chili Bowl Nationals.
Her result slotted her to start in an F main around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, which would be her first time attempting to claw forward from lower than a B main in two years.
“I made it the last two years,” said Bryson, who became the first female to make the A main at the indoor midget race in 2022. “This year, I get to really experience going through the soup. You gotta make it interesting and, hopefully, we put on a show for the fans.”
Roughly 14 hours later, Bryson strapped back in to the No. 91k Swindell-Bertrand Motorsports midget and drove her way into a transfer position in the F feature. However, she was unable to progress past the E main, despite an 18th-to-13th effort.
“I think it would’ve helped a lot if they would’ve reworked the track. They were supposed to work it before the H main, I think, and they ended up waiting until after our race. I think that kind of hurt us for sure,” Bryson explained.
The highlight? She went forward in both races and had fun.
And for the 22-year-old — who will be focusing on pavement racing in 2024 in both USAC Silver Crown and the Trans-Am Series — a chance to have fun and revisit her dirt racing roots is why she came to the Chili Bowl.
Next week, Bryson’s busy schedule will commence with a flight to Sebring, Fla., to start testing for the Trans-Am race at Sebring Int’l Raceway in late February. During the season, she will be piloting a Chevrolet Corvette for LSI Racing in the SGT class.
Chasing two national championships might seem challenging to the average person, but to Bryson, any and all seat time is simply a benefit to her budding career.
“I’ll never have any time where I’m just sitting at home watching. I’ll constantly be busy and I think that’ll help us a lot,” Bryson said. “I’m gonna get a lot of experience in road course racing, so I think that’ll help on the pavement side of Silver Crown.”
After earning the rookie-of-the-year award in Silver Crown last year and finishing fifth in the standings, Bryson is bubbling with excitement about her second season in the No. 26 Sam Pierce Racing entry.
She’ll also be more familiar with the tracks on the Silver Crown circuit — a fact that, in turn, has set her over-arching 2024 goal in motion.
“I think one of the biggest things I want to do this year is win a Silver Crown race, maybe at Gateway, maybe at Springfield or somewhere that’s on a mile track,” Bryson said, green eyes sparkling. “I wanna go do it.”